Bridesmaids Dresses

I went dress shopping this past weekend, but not for my wedding. My Best Friend and Maid (will be Matron) of Honor is getting married in May of 2010. I play the role of Maid of Honor in her wedding along with our other Best Friend, Melly. So this past Sunday we took a looooonnngggg drive up to one of the Alfred Angelo stores to try on dresses.

I was a little concerned that the prices of the dresses were going to be waaayyyy out of my price range for her wedding, but they ended up not being bad at all. And it didn't hurt that we got $20 off at the register. ;)

So without further ado, I present the dress I will be wearing:

Source

The full dress will be in the color it is shown in, however, the sash and detail at the bottom will be in champagne. I attempted and failed at trying to Photoshop it to resemble that, so I'll just leave that disaster in the trash bin. :)

I really dig the dress, and I actually really dig Alfred Angelo's Bridesmaid dresses all together. Because I am still undecided about everything as far as our wedding is concerned, I have no idea what I want my girls to wear. There is one dress at Alfred Angelo that I adore, but I'm not sure it would work for all of them. Let me show you:

Source

Talk about adorable, right? The problem is that all of my girls have boobs and curves, so I don't think this dress would end up looking all that fab on all of them. Boo. The other thing, I never really wanted my girls to all wear the same dress. I'm not sure why, I've just always felt that they should have a bit more say in what they end up wearing, ya know? I don't want them to walk away hating the dress that I put them in. Some serious thought is needed here.

An empty seat

On September 28, 2009 my Grandmother passed away. She is the only one of my Grandparents who I really knew.

I keep reminding myself that we were really fortunate to have her with us for as long as we did. She died at the age 93 and ll months, to the date.

Christmas will be hard this year, as will all the months leading up and following it. I've never lost such a close family member before this, at least not that I remember. Both of my Grandfathers passed before I was 3 years old, and my Dad's Mom died when I was 5 or 6, so I don't have much of a recollection her.

Besides just being sad over the loss of my Grandmother, I kind of feel selfish about the fact that one of the most upsetting things for me is that she won't be at our wedding. I'm sure it's natural to feel that way when somebody close to you passes and you are in the process of planning one of the most exciting events in your Life.

It's the little things that are getting to me. I won't have to buy her a corsage to wear, or put out an escort card with her name on it. She won't be included in the family portraits, and possibly the most disappointing is that I won't get that picture of the three generations with my Grandmom, my Mom and myself. Like I said, it's the silly stuff but those are things that are presently most upsetting.

Miss you Grandmom. I know you won't be there physically, but I'm sure your love and support will be surrounding us all on that day.

We found the place, we found the place!

Just when I was beginning to feel like we were never going to find a place that would meet all of our criteria, it popped up!

I was feeling pretty bummed last weekend after seeing yet another venue that ended up being not quite what we were looking for and decided to turn to the ladies on The Knot. I went to the boards and posted my feelings of frustration that this 'perfect place' didn't exist. Of course, the ladies immediately responded with suggestions of places in the area that they thought might work for us based on the the things I said I wanted. Some of the places we had visited, but there were a few new ones. One in particular stuck out, Columbia Station in Pheonixville, which is owned by Robert Ryan Catering. It sounded different, which I like.

I contacted the coordinator at Columbia Station that night and had an appointment set up for the following weekend within 24 hours. Things were looking good once I had received the sample menus and saw that this place is completely all inclusive. I have found that to be the most difficult thing as far as finding a reasonable venue is concerned. Everywhere we looked was beautiful but the prices were ridiculous and didn't even include the tables, linens and chairs.

The Saturday came and my Mom, Pat's Mom and I all headed up to Pheonixville to check this place out. It is perfect!



As you might assume from the name, it's an old railroad station. This is something that I knew Pat would be into from the beginning because with him, there is just something about trains. The ticket booth and waiting areas have been transformed into cocktail/bar area and ballroom respectively. I will be able to have my outdoor ceremony in the garden right next to the driveway and then we will go into the station itself for the cocktail hour and reception.

I'm not going to try to explain the set up of the venue because I know that I won't do it justice. I'll tell you about one of my favorite details though, the caboose. There is an old caboose on the right hand side as soon as you pull into the driveway and from the outside it just looks like a nice touch for the station, but the inside is a whole different story. They set it up as a little sitting/dressing area for the Bride and Bridesmaids. It's neat because when you look out one of the side windows, you can see the garden area but unless they know that you are in there, they won't be seeing you! So neat!

Now I just need to get Pat over there to check it out and then hopefully we will be signing a contract within the next two weeks! <3

Wedding Nightmare No. 2

I was really hoping that that dream from a couple weeks ago would be it for a while. I was happy to wake up each morning feeling relatively calm about this whole wedding process. I was also apparently pretty niave about how these dreams like to sneak up on a gal at any random time!

~cue the music~

I was at my parents house getting ready for the big day. Pretty normal, right? Not so much. It turns out that I'm actually getting married AT my parents house, in their driveway to precise! The reception was to be in their living room and backyard. We had all of three tables with these navy blue tablecloths. It was not at all attractive, and not at all how I imagine my wedding looking.

So I'm dressed and freaking about the fact that there are no centerpieces because I had left them at my house, and sent my Dad to go find the stuff that I need for the centerpieces. My Dad doesn't drive and when he is asked to accomplish an important task, it's usually too much pressure for him. Doh! I'm left freaking out even more and then... I wake up!

My Dad laughed when I told him about this dream and promised me that even if I ask him to help with the wedding decoration, he will politely say no. Hahaha!

Things just keep getting weirder and weirder in my head. I REALLY need to find a venue, like now.

Will you be my Maids?

I decided a long time ago that when it came time to ask my Ladies to be in the wedding party I wanted to make it special. I am a big cheese ball like that. :) So I decided that one day I would have them over for dinner and dessert and formally ask them all at once.

Right after Christmas (about two weeks after the proposal) I ordered ornamnets that 'Will you be my Maid of Honor?' for the two girls who would have that role, and three ornaments that said 'Bridesmaid'. I feel like it was fitting seeing as how we got engaged so close to Christmas. I also bought Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor etiquette books for them, which I thought was a nice touch.

I finally got my stuff together for this past Friday, July 10th, almost 7 months after we got engaged, and invited the ladies over. We ate dinner, drank sangrias and danced to The Proclaimers since they were playing on the TV. It was a wonderful night and it reaffirmed the reason why these Ladies are the ones I want standing by me on the day that I marry my Best Friend. <3



These would be the little baggies that held the ornaments, books and a card asking the girls to be my Maid or MOH.



They were pretty excited about the books and promptly started dancing in line formation.



This is me and one of my lovely MOHs, Kate. She is getting married just 4 months before I am, so she will have the role of Matron of Honor come time for my wedding. (I am also her MOH, so this should be fun!)



Another lovely MOH, Melly. She is my crafting buddy, so I'm sure she'll be the first to volunteer when it comes time to start my DIY projects.



Myself and my good friend, Kelly. This is the lady responsible for the wonderful pictures of our engagement!



My sister in-law to be. I met her when she was in 8th grade and now she's all adult like! It's irksome! <3



I guess instead of setting up the timer to take a picture of all five of us, we decided to take a picture of our feet. Haha! So much fun!

A good time was had by all. They actually had no idea that I was planning this, so it was kind of fun the look of surprise on their faces when they were opening their cards. :)

Wedding Nightmare No. 1

From what I understand this is a normal thing for all brides-to-be. I expected it to happen eventually, but I'm not going to lie and say that I was pleased when it finally happened.

~insert dramatic music~

There was a gorgeous beach a block away from the house that we were staying at. I could literally walk out the door and walk right to it, but I had more important things to take care of. For example, I was getting married in about 20mins and still hadn't put on my dress or had any of the decorations set up!

It seems that we had rented this large beach house in North Carolina, I'm thinking it was supposed to be somewhere in the Outer Banks. (My family has gone down there for Thanksgiving a couple times and rented a couple huge houses, so I feel like that's what was happening here.) My whole family was staying in this house with me, and by whole family, I mean mean my WHOLE FAMILY. Twenty or so Aunts and Uncles, about sixty cousins, and then Pat's family on top of my own. It was outrageous.

The backyard was littered with mismatched tables, table cloths and centerpieces. Nothing was the way I wanted it and my dress was terrifying! Just as I was stepping into the dress of my nightmares, I woke up and that was that.

Maybe it wasn't really as bad as it could have been, but it definitely made me feel like we are even more behind in our planning than I had thought. :/

Time to get a move on, self!

We're not so great at this...

So things have been really slow on the wedding front these days. It's not that we don't want to go look at venues and FINALLY start making some decisions, it's just that we have been so busy with our day to day lives that finding the perfect place for the wedding has been put on the back burner.

June is always a busy month for us because it's Pat's birthday is on the 23rd and his family's reunion weekend is around the same date. Yea, it's all close together but we have to prepare for that weekend! Hahaha! And then this year I added another weekend of being busy because I planned a surprise birthday party for him for the weekend after his birthday. It went smoothly and he was in fact surprised! Go me! :)

We need to stop putting it off and really buckle down and find the place that is going to work for us. A couple places on the agenda for this month; Tyler Arboretum, Independence Seaport Museum and The Willows, which doesn't have a website. I just want for us to find the venue for our wedding so that I can feel like we have actually accomplished something as far as the wedding is concerned. Here's hoping that one of these places proves to be that place!

Wish us luck!

Morris Arboretum

So the Mom's and I went on a little outing this past weekend. I let Boy off the hook this time because he was completely exhausted and I kind of felt bad for him. We went and checked out Morris Arboretum, which is a place that I have been dying to look at. I'm not sure when I decided that I really wanted to check it out but it has been on my mind for a long time.


It was absolutely beautiful! Breathtakingly beautiful. The picture below is what the view would be from the place we would stand to be married.



There are all different kinds of gardens throughout the 92 acres of land. I think the one below is the rose garden.


This is me standing in a random little pavilion type thing.


I don't even know what that thing below is. It looks kind of like a giant beehive and I thought it was pretty awesome looking.


This is the train set that Pat thought was really neat once I showed him the pictures.


Another one of the gardens. So pretty.


I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it was absolutely beautiful. I spent the past couple days swearing to myself that it was the place we are going to have the wedding but then the reality of things set in:

They can only hold up to 180 people, we have 200 on our list.
Even if we could get our list down to 180, we would be left with a tiny dance floor and frankly, I'm not ok with that.

These two things are complete deal breakers and I'm pretty disappointed about that. Bummer.

So the search continues.

Lemon Hill Mansion

I forced one of my best friends and MOH to go driving around with me the other day to look at a couple different venues. I more just wanted to look at things from a distance to see if I looked the look of the place from the outside. Silly, I know but I wanted to easily rule a couple places out. Haha!

So drove over to Lemon Hill Mansion which was atop a hill and had an amazing view of center city. I mean amazing.



Naturally, my camera doesn't really do the view justice but it's fantastic. That's what I'm getting at here. Unfortunately, I wasn't so impressed with the look of Lemon Hill Mansion itself. Lame.



It was really pretty and all but I'm just so set on the garden thing and Lemon Hill doesn't really offer that.





And that weird little building up there is apparently the bathrooms. I must admit that I was afraid to go in. Too bad Lemon Hill, you could have been great!

Bartram's Garden

So last weekend Pat, My Mom, his Mom and I all went to look at Bartram's Garden. It's a place that I had found online months and months and months ago. Of course it was beautiful.



When we went there was actually another wedding going on. That made things interesting but it also gave us a good idea of what the place would look like all decorated for a wedding. This is the area for the ceremony. As you can see, the guests are seated and waiting for the ceremony to begin.



The building on the right there is Bartram's House. It was finished being built in 1731. Cool, huh? I love old houses!



That gate leads into the reception area. It's in between the Coach House and the Barn. It's a really nice set up and I really love that gate!



And this is the reception area. The picture is really dark so it's kind of hard to see how it looks but it's a nice set up.



So I really liked it but I think I went into it expecting to like it.

Pros: Outside garden ceremony, Historic Site, really really really pretty, holds all 200 guests, meadow with the skyline as a background

Cons: Only 4 women bathroom stalls, rocky pathways for those who aren't so great on their feet

We'll see what happens. I plan to check out a couple more places but the skyline thing really won my heart.

Long time no... blog?

Ok, so it's been a while and that's ok. We have been engaged for just under five months now and are just about to actually start planning things. I felt kind of silly having this blog when we weren't even getting ready to look at venues or anything that required actual planning. I was just tossing around ideas in my brain and occassionaly writing them down here.

Now that we are actually getting ready to do some real planning, this site feels a bit more relevant for me.

So here's where we are at:

We haven't actually looked at any venues but are in the process of booking a couple walk-thru's for the next couple of weeks. We have narrowed it down to three places which I think is a great idea. I know that if I look at too many places then I will feel all crazy about actually picking one. Too much pressure, too many choices! But the main idea is to have an outdoor wedding, where ever it ends up happening. The outdoor thing is pretty big factor, at least for me.

We got our Guest List together last weekend and it's not pretty. We were hoping to keep the number to about 170 but because of the whole Irish family thing, 199. We keep talking about cutting it down, but where do you start? Who do you cut? And how can you justify that cut? The biggest problem with the larger guest list is that one of the three venues that we like has a maximum of 170 people. Lame. That is pretty upsetting because it it one of the places that I have invisioned for years. I'm going to try to talk to them because if the 10-15% "No" responses holds true for us then we will either be right there or not far off. We'll see.

I still haven't asked my girls to be my bridal party. What am I waiting for!?!?1 Well, I guess that I'm waiting to actually set a date. We are still aiming for September 5, 2010 but what if we can't get it? We'll see. Plus, I have a whole thing planned out and I'm just not ready!

I still plan to make my own invites, save-the-dates, etc. I ordered some samples of colored cardstock but it has just been hanging out in my house for a while. I'll really look at it at some point.

What else?

Oh nothing. I'm going to try to post some of the actual ideas that I've had up here in the coming days/weeks/months whatever. I will let you know how the tours go. :)

xoxo
Keira

Family, Guest Lists and Monograms. Oh my!

Fun fact: My grandparents on both sides of my family were married on September 14, 19__. Same day, same city, different churches. Cool, huh?

Not as impressive but still kind of weird, my parents are both the 5th child of 6 children from the above stated grandparents. I love this kind of weird stuff.

So I come from a very Irish family on both sides which has always been fun for me. As I mentioned up there both of my parents have 5 siblings and every single one of my parents siblings got married and then went on to produce at least two children. This has ultimately led me to have something like 50 first cousins(I'm including spouses here because I want to). Then of course there is the extended family and close friends, people who I have known my whole Life and those that I have grown up with. Let's do some math:

I have 20 Aunts and Uncles, plus my 50 cousins and my Grandmother and two Great Aunts. We're looking at 73 people who are definitely family.

Then there are about another 15 people who just kind of show up because they are related to somebody who married into my family which brings us up to 88 people.

Can't forget the family that I lived next door to practically my whole Life, we kind of followed them when they tried to move away from us.

So that's another 5 people, so 93.

Plus the other really good friends who used to spend Christmas Eve at our house each year and share cookies with Santa.

95.

Plus my Mom's Best Friend and her family because I also pretty mush grew up with them.

100.

And another really good friend of the family.

102.

So as you can see with just people who are family or like family there is little chance that Pat and I can have a small wedding. Sure, I could not invite all of my cousins but I kind of want them there. I didn't even add in Pat's family or our good friends. Pat's family is about half the size of mine, which is still pretty big.

Here's what I'm getting at, Pat and I did a rough draft of our guest list the other night and we came up with about 170 people. We both know that we are missing people from that list and when we sit down to talk with our parents they are both going to start going on about who is not on the list that should be. We're assuming we are going to be inviting about 200 people to our wedding. That's a lot of people if you ask me! We've talked about it and we really want to avoid cutting people off of the list but I'm afraid we might have to because we are paying for the wedding ourselves and naturally we are establishing a budget of some kind. Blah. This is not going to be a fun process.

In other news, I got bored at work yesterday and decided to play around on Microsoft Publisher so I designed a monogram for Pat and I. :)

I'm actually really excited about this because I just love monograms! Since I come from big Irish family, we're the type of family that has a name like "O'Brein" or "O'Malley" but because my Dad has German in him I never had the pleasure of having the little "O" in my lastnite but I'm going to get it now! Pat also comes from a big Irish family, not as big but it's still pretty big and his family rocks the "O" in their name too! Yay!

That's all I got for now.

xoxo,

K

Thoughts, ideas, plans, I'm crazy.

So since we haven't really started planning everything and I have so many ideas that I need to just write down somewhere, I'm going to put it here. So as I get more and more ideas I will be posting random thoughts for the wedding. It should be fun.

I like to think of myself as a creative person so I plan to make my own invitations, save-the-dates, programs, aisle runner (if I decide to have one), etc. Oh and I'm kind of cheap so I'm hoping that doing a lot of this stuff on my own will save me some money. ;)

My favorite color is red so I plan to go with a bunch of different shades of reds, oranges and maybe some yellows. We'll see about the yellows.

Eventually I will be posting some inspiration boards but I haven't had the time or motivation to make those up just yet. Maybe next week? Or next month?

Because I plan to have outdoor wedding I am hoping to plan something that has a very earthy feel. I feel very strongly about doing all that we can to help preserve our environment so I'm going to try to have as little waste going into my wedding as possible. There are a lot of really awesome organizations who I'm hoping can help me along the way.

I just had an idea to maybe make my own paper products, and by that I mean spending lots and lots of time ripping up pieces of paper and going through the whole process of making my own paper. I'm probably being a bit over ambitious right now but who knows? Since the wedding is still so far away I might actually be able to take the time to make my own paper and dye it and everything. Maybe that could be one of my big summertime projects this year. Maybe?

Ok, I'm getting a bit wordy here so I'm going to leave this post as it is.

xoxo

"So when's the wedding!?!?!"

Ok, so we have officially been engaged for a whopping three weeks and I can't tell you how many times I have been asked what our 'date' is.

Give us a break people!!! Can't we just bask in the glory of being engaged for a little while? Were we supposed to set a date the same night that he asked!?!?! I just feel like it is completely nuts to expect people to have everything figured out within weeks of the actual proposal. Crazy!

The idea is for us to get married in September of 2010 but we have no date and as of right now, that's just the ideal. Things could change so quickly. The venue we love could be booked for September of 2010 and then we'd have to figure something else out! Or we could both lose our jobs and then we'll just be going to the justice of the peace! Haha!

No really though, we are in no rush to pick a date. I mean, sure we're going to start looking at venues and stuff in the next couple of months but picking the actual date will require picking the perfect venue first. I'll let you know when we figure it all out. ;)

xoxo,
K