Flower Girl Dresses

Well, now that we have our Bridesmaid dresses picked out, it's time to start thinking about flower girl dresses...

I was talking to Jennifer the other day (my cousin, and the mom of my adorable flower girls) and we both looked online at Mori Lee's website and go figure we both picked the same dress! It goes with the bridesmaid dresses PERFECTLY.


How cute is this?! And it has the band that is a perfect match to the bridesmaid dresses. This is the online version of coral, but let's hope the real thing isn't quite so orangy :)

Can't you just picture these cutie pies in this dress?!?
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(That's Reagan on the left, and Sarah on the right)

Jen is planning to take the girls to try it on some time after the holidays, and I can't wait to see pictures! I know they will be absolutely ADORABLE!

Cake Inspiration

So we've been going to cake tastings lately (2 last week, and scheduling a few more after the holidays), which has forced me to decide what I want our cake to look like. Matt obviously doesn't really care, as long as it tastes good he'll be happy. :) I've played around with quite a few ideas, and I honestly couldn't tell you what the cake will actually turn out like, but this is my current inspiration:

I LOVE the idea of a brown cake. I don't know how I never thought of it before, but I think it fits in perfectly with our wedding. And can't you just picture beautiful coral colored gerbera daisies cascading down the side? Oh I can. The only thing I would do differently from the cake pictured is to add some sort of topper...I'm thinking a nice sparkly "G"... We'll see about that.

We just have to find the cake baker that we love. We've met with 2, both were very nice and had very yummy cakes, but neither one stood out to us. So far, with every vendor I've just known when we met the right one. And Matt has always thought the same thing. But we're still undecided after meeting 2 cake people, so I'm thinking that means we need to keep looking. I was hoping to check this item off the list before the holidays, but I'm not thinking that is going to happen...

Dress shopping round 2...we have a winner!!

I just got back from a fun filled afternoon of dress shopping with my bridesmaids. We went to Mia's Bridal in Olathe, and it was a great experience! They were very helpful, and we came away with some great dress choices! Believe it or not, I have changed my mind (yet again...) and now all of the Bridesmaids are going to wear the same dress. Jessica, the Maid of Honor, will wear a different dress, but it coordinates with the others well.

So...without further ado...PICTURES!

The dresses are both by Mori Lee, and here are the pictures of them from their website:

Bridesmaid Dresses

Maid of Honor's Dress


The BMs dresses will be in the chocolate like its shown, but the part that's white in the picture will be coral. And the MOH dress will be all chocolate. ( I realize that in the picture here they look like completely different shades of brown, but I looked at swatches and the Chocolate is almost identical for both dresses :) )

And now pictures of my beautiful girls in their dresses!!
Jessica~Maid of Honor

A close up of the detail on Jessica's dress (ignore the silly face she's making...)


Ashley~Bridesmaid

Yet another silly face...I think we had too much fun today!!

Caitlin~Bridesmaid



Shelley~Bridesmaid


Detail of BM dresses (as modeled by Shelley...)



And last, to see what they look like together, a pic of Jessica and Ashley (clamped, zipped, and lookin HAWT!):



YAY! We made a decision! Finally. :) We haven't ordered them yet, I am now on the hunt for these dresses online so I can get them cheaper.


Jessie and Elaine, hope you guys like this dress!! hehe. But really, it was very flattering on everyone, so I'm sure you'll both look great in it.


I can't wait to actually order them! One more thing off the list... now I have to decide what the guys are going to wear. Ugh. It never ends...

Ladies and Gentlemen...we have a Guestbook!!

As you may (or may not) remember, I recently designed and ordered my guest book from Picaboo. I had a 50% off coupon code, so last week I decided to go for it and place the order... all in all with shipping I paid $23.99 for this bad boy!! Now that is a deal. Almost Mama T worthy! (if you are a member of my family, you know what I'm talking about. If not...Mama T is my grandma, and nobody - I mean nobody - can find a bargain like Mama T can!)

Well yesterday evening we had a knock on the door, and it was the UPS man, WITH OUR GUESTBOOK! I can't believe it arrived this fast, I just got the email saying it shipped like 2 days ago. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the actual book, but here is a sneak peek of the cover taken from the Picaboo Website:

I'd give you the link to look through the whole thing...but that ruins all the fun for those of you who are actually coming to the wedding! Gotta keep some things a surprise...I'll tell you this much - it's not your typical guestbook. Instead of boring blank pages with lines for everyone to sign their names, it is full of pictures of Matt and I (from when we were little up until our Engagement Pictures) and there is space around the pictures for everyone to sign and write us a message. This way, after the wedding we have an awesome keepsake! But you'll just have to come to the wedding to see the real thing ;)

How do I look?

You may or may not have noticed...but the blog has had a makeover recently! What do you think? I've been a *little* bored at work the last two days, and instead of working on my to-do list (one of the new additions to the blog...) I've been schnazzing up the blog. I know, I'm so productive aren't I. Well...hope you like it! Maybe I should actually do some work now...

VistaPrint ROCKS!

Ever since we got engaged (which, yes, I know, was an entire 6 MONTHS ago) I have been looking forward to sending Save the Date magnets out. Just because our engagement will be so long (just over a year) and I want to spread the good news about our wedding as soon as possible! Well, it has taken me FOREVER to actually get this Save the Date process going. First we had to take our engagement pictures and get the copyrighted CD (yes, I realize that was like 2 months ago...) and then I had to pick out which ones I wanted (you know me and decisions...) I orginally picked some out from Magnet Street, but was hesitating because of the price.

Well...then I discovered this wonderful thing called VistaPrint (and I have the Realies to thank for that!) Holy cow, if you haven't been to their website before, stop now and click on the link. You will be AMAZED. They have so much FREE stuff!!!!! And even the stuff that's not free is amazingly CHEAP!!!! So, they have a deal where you can get 10 magnets FREE - just pay shipping - and you can design your own and upload the design (for a small fee), or use one of their templates. Well, I have this wonderful $20 version of Photo Shop at home, and I thought I'd put it to some good use and see if I couldn't design my own Save the Date (ok, by design my own I mean copy the design I liked from the Magnet Street catalog...)

I ordered the 10 Free ones from VP, just to see what they looked like (I just couldn't commit to ordering the entire 100 of them...) and they came in yesterday!! I was going to post a picture, but I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you who will receive them in the mail!! Also, they aren't exactly what I wanted YET. I still need to tweak them a little before placing the final order.

I'll probably give in and post a picture when I get the final ones in :) But I just had to share my excitement. And enlighten everyone to VistaPrint!! Seriously, if you haven't checked it out...DO IT!!!!!!! You won't regret it! And sign up with your email address. You'll get an email just about every day, but it's totally worth it because the emails are full of FREE STUFF!! I have ordered all kinds of free stuff for Matt's "company", my Christmas cards, and I think I've *almost* convinced myself to design my own invitations! :o

Engagement Pics are on the wall!!

We had our Engagement photos taken by the amazing Josh Solar back in September. (click here to see my post about how awesome they were...) We went for an ordering session a few weeks later, and after looking at each picture a few hundred times I decided on 5, which we ordered with plans to mat and frame to hang in the living room. Well the pictures came in a couple months ago, but it took us a while to actually go get the frames (partially because I knew how expensive they were going to be, and was waiting for birthday gift cards to Hobby Lobby... :) We got them ordered a couple weeks ago (which let me tell you was another tough decision...who knew there were 100 different colors of mat board to choose from???) and went to pick them up this weekend. Yesterday, Matt got them all hung up, and they look GREAT! Even though I had a layout in mind when we ordered them, I still spent a good hour trying to decide how I wanted them on the wall. I had paper cut-outs that were the size of the frames and everything...testing the different ideas out on the wall. Well go figure, we ended up using the exact layout that I started with, so I did all that work for nothing. :) Oh well, they still look awesome!! And now for some pics...

I'll start with the zoomed out view, so you can get the "full effect" of how it looks in the living room.
A little closer...

And finally...a couple of close up shots.

I also received my free photo book from Snapfish in the mail today...I used every single one of our e-pics (yep, all 66 of them) in the album. I was originally going to print a 4x6 of each one and put them in a photo album, kind of like a proof album, but when I found out Snapfish was offering a free photo book deal, I figured I'd do that instead! It turned out pretty nice...especially since it was FREE (ok, not totally free, I still had to pay for the shipping, but close enough!)

Click here to see a preview.

Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

This afternoon, my 4 in-town bridesmaids and I went to Bridal Extraordinaire to go dress shopping. I'm so proud of my girls, in just one hour they all picked out a favorite! We haven't made any purchases yet, but here are all of the favorites so far...

The picture on the left is from the designer's website, and the picture on the right is the actual dress they tried on- of course the pictures don't do justice to how gorgeous the girls looked!

Jessica (Maid of Honor)
Dress by Saison Blanche


Ashley (Bridesmaid)
Dress by Bill Levkoff

Shelley (Bridesmaid)

Dress by Landa Designs

Caitlin (Bridesmaid)

Dress by Saison Blanche

All of the dresses will of course be in a Chocolate Brown color, and we will find some sort of Coral accent to go with each one.

And in case you need a reminder...click here to see the post that shows the dress Jessie picked out.

Elaine, you're the last one...can't wait until you come in town so we can go shopping too!! :)

The dress is MINE!!!!!!

On Wednesday, while sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself (after having my wisdom teeth surgery on Tuesday), I got the call I've anxiously been awaiting since August 16th. "This is Bridal Extraordinaire calling, we wanted to let you know that your dress has arrived." YAY!!!!! And you better believe I scheduled the very first fitting appointment they had, which was yesterday evening.

I cannot even begin to describe to you how AWESOME it felt to put on MY dress. It is so beautiful, and it's ALL MINE! (by the way, thanks mom ;) I didn't want to take it off. I drug out the picture taking, veil trying on, and oohing and aahing as long as possible. But finally, I had to give it back :( I know it will be in safe hands, but I really kind of wish I could have taken it home (that could have been dangerous, though...I would probably have had to put it on at least once a day...)

Once again, I don't want to risk Matt seeing the pictures on this blog (even though I'm starting to doubt that he'll ever look at it....) so I'll post a slideshow...click here.

I love love love this dress, and now all I need to do is decide on a veil (you'll see in the pictures, I tried on a few veils, but we didn't like any of them) and shoes, and accessories, and I'm sure there's a million more things I haven't thought of yet....


Oh, and just a warning...the in-town bridesmaids and I are going shopping tomorrow afternoon...so be on the lookout for more pictures!!!!!!!!

DIY Centerpieces...attempt #1

Last week Sarah and I went to Old Time Pottery (which, by the way, is the COOLEST STORE EVER!) The plan was to find some cool vases and such for centerpiece inspiration. I did buy 1 vase...and a whole bunch of Christmas stuff...oops.

Then last weekend, while shopping with my family on Saturday, I picked up a few more DIY supplies - coffee beans, ribbon, a cute square votive holder, and the closest thing I could find to a coral colored candle. I had some silk Gerbers at home (yes, I'm obsessed with them...they're everywhere...) so I threw some of those in as well.

Here's my final product....what do ya think???

You'll have to ignore the fact that the large vase isn't entirely full of coffee beans...I didn't quite have enough. You'll also have to ignore the multi colored gerbers, and pink candle...these will all end up being coral. :)

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out... I just need to find some more multi-sized vases. I'm thinking big and square. And I need to find a place where I can find lots of coffee beans really cheap.

The DIY adventures continue...

Centerpiece Ideas

Since I plan to DIY all of my decorations and centerpieces, I've been trying to come up with a "vision" for these centerpieces, so that I can start buying things and trying things out. I think I found that vision...

Right now, here's what I'm thinking...

~Varying heights of the centerpieces (like a tall, medium and short)

~Some with candles, some with flowers (gerbers of course!)

~COFFEE BEANS inside of clear glass vases, like in the pictures. What a cheap and perfect solution for my color scheme!!!!

~Square vases...3 heights like I mentioned above.

I'm sure this will change a million times before I make a final decision, but I'm really excited to at least have SOME sort of idea to start with!!

P.S. Thanks again to the Realies for both of these inspiration pics!!!!!!! :)

Cute Find!

Yesterday Sarah (Matt's sister) and I were emailing back and forth about wedding ideas, and she found these ADORABLE favor boxes that would perfectly match my gerber daisy theme...
I definitely think this is something we can DIY (do-it-yourself). Matt and I aren't thinking we're going to do favors at the actual reception, but I think these boxes would be super cute for a shower favor. :) Thanks Sarah!

CAUGHT UP!

So we are now in real time, HOORAY! I have now filled you in on the past 6 months (holy crap! I can't believe it's been that long since I got engaged!!!!!!!!!!) of wedding planning. We have just over 8 months to go, and I'm sure things will be getting much more hectic and chaotic in the coming months, but I know it will be lots of fun!

So come on back, and I'll be sure to keep you updated on everything. And if you have any ideas, suggestions, or just want to tell me how cool my wedding is going to be...leave me a comment!

I'll leave you with one more family picture :)

10/30/08: Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

One of my bridesmaids, Jessie, was in town for a few days recently, so I took the opportunity to snatch her up and take her dress shopping! I still haven't been able to gather all of my in-town girls for a shopping trip, but I had to get Jessie trying on dresses while I had the chance.

We went to David's Bridal and Bridal Extraordinaire, and found quite a few cute dresses! My original plan was to put the girls in coral colored dresses, but once I saw one on Jessie I changed my mind. Not that Jessie looked bad in it, but the coral was just WAY too bright - and imagining 6 of them in a row was mind-boggeling. So I decided brown dresses and coral accents would be better. I'm happy with that decision (and I'm pretty sure the bridesmaids are now letting out a sigh of relief...). I'm still hoping to find some HAWT coral shoes they can wear, though! ;)
So here's the dress Jessie picked out...It's the one on the left, the short one.
Darling, isn't it!? It will be in the brown that's shown, but the band will be in coral instead of turquoise. It looks great on her, but I don't have a good picture - you aren't supposed to take pictures while you try dresses on at B.E., so I had to be sneaky about it, and my pictures didn't really turn out. Just trust me, it looks FABULOUS on her!

Love my Realies!

So for anyone who doesn't know, I frequent a message board called Real Brides, which pretty much is where I get any and all of my wedding ideas, advice, etc. The girls I have met on there (the Realies) have already helped me SO MUCH with planning my wedding, I can't imagine where I'd be without them. Seriously. I wouldn't have found my photographer, DJ, minister, idea for my guestbook, and the list goes on.

Well, one of the Realies I've met, Amber, is starting a video-montage business (check out her website!) and is going to put together a montage for us for our reception! I'm so excited! I was originally planning to do this myself, but had no idea how to do it, or where to begin really. Now I have a checklist and an experienced pro to put it together for me. And of course I'm always happy to support a Realie! So thanks KUAmber, I can't wait to see our awesome video!! :)

Here's Jake and Amber, the video montage team.

I stole this picture off of their website. :)

Check!

Man, when I write these accomplishments out one after another it sure feels like I'm marking things of my list left and right! I love it! Our most recent decision was another easy one (those are my favorite!)

I was a little worried that it would be tough to find a minister (since we don't belong to a church, and aren't particularly religious...) but it actually wasn't! Thanks to some more Realie recommendations we found Dennis Hanna. He was exactly the guy we were looking for, and he's already got some great ideas for our ceremony. We didn't even meet with anyone else. We left Panera that night, looked at each other and said "Yep! That's our guy!" Now that's what I call an easy decision!

I booked a DJ!

Well, luckily, this decision was a lot easier than the photographer. :)

We met with 3 different DJs, but we knew after meeting with Craig from Elite Sounds that we were going to book him. He is just the guy we were looking for. He's laid back, not too cheesy, and understands the feel of our wedding. He also has worked with the Solars a lot, so that's an added bonus! We're really looking forward to working with him.

Now for the funny story that goes along with it...

After meeting with all 3 DJs, and deciding on Craig, I went to email him to let him know. Then I thought of a question, and then another one, so I actually sent him 3 emails - or so I thought. The first one went to him, the second went to the DJ we had met that night (and decided not to book...) OOPS. So that DJ basically thought I was emailing to book them, when in fact I wasn't. That was an embarassing situation to explain. Go Brooke. Blonde move of the day.

9/29/08: Engagement Session with the Solars!

You can not imagine how excited I was for this day to come. Our first time shooting with The Solars. I waited until the last minute to prepare everything, but I still think everything turned out ok. :)

I decided to have CaraSue Hall, fellow Realie :) do my hair and make-up (and while I was at it, I booked her for the wedding). That was a GREAT decision. She did an awesome job, and I can't wait to see how beautiful she makes me look for the wedding.

After rushing to get CaraSue booked at the last minute, ordering a dress online that came in and was too big, buying some awesome shoes, and basically running around like a chicken with it's head cut off all day, we met with Josh for our shoot. We went to 2 parks nearby our house and then stopped off along the side of the road a couple of times (photographers - they see potential in the most random places...). It was a LOT of fun, and Josh did a great job! We love our pictures!

So here are a few teasers...the same ones Josh teased us with...

This was Josh's favorite of the day. I kind of love it too... :)

Our first "family photo." Aren't we just a happy little family!?

My dog is spoiled, what can I say.

Yes, she is wearing a shirt in this picture.
Rub My Belly for Good Luck
If you know Daisy, you understand. :)

See what I meant when I said AWESOME PHOTOS?!

Josh Solar, you rock my world. :)

And I will leave you with an image Josh captured perfectly.

This is what I wake up to on a regular basis...

Oh, and if you'd like to see all of the pictures, click here and go to Portrait Photography. Then click on Proofing, and our password is henry.

Ladies and Gentelmen...we have a photographer!

Whew. I hope the rest of the wedding decisions are not as involved as this one was.


I started with a pile of about 50 photographer's brochures from the Bridal Show and a list of at least 30 recommendations from other brides, and began the process of narrowing them down. Boy was that a process. I went to each photographer's website to look at their work, and decide if they fit my style (and I'll admit I wasn't exactly sure what my style was at the time...). I eventually narrowed that list down to about 20, and then looked up more specific information on each of those to find if they had some of the most important things (i.e. copyrights, 2 photgraphers, etc.). Then I managed to narrow that list down to the 6 that we met with - and might I add that the list was longer than 6, we just happened to find the one we loved before I got through scheduling all of the interviews. :) Matt was a true trooper and went on every interview with me, asked good questions, and gave me his honest opinion.

Well... you're asking... who the heck did you end up booking??


The amazing and wonderful Josh Solar Photo. It's funny, too, because they weren't even on my list until the last minute, after several Realie recommendations. :) Right after we met them, we fell in love. Josh and Jenny are the nicest, most down to earth people, and they take amazing photos. No, seriously. AMAZING photos.

Check out their website: http://www.joshsolarphoto.com/


So we did it. We made the decision (and a great one at that) and booked them! And so far, they have been AWESOME to work with, and I know it will only get better!!

8/23/08: Engagement Party

On August 23rd we had both families out to our house in Olathe for a BBQ to celebrate our engagement. It was so much fun!! Luckily both of our families get along GREAT. We grilled out burgers and dogs, and the families got to know each other a little better. We really are blessed to both have such great families, and for them to get along as well as they do is so wonderful! We love you all!!

Now for some pictures of our fun day...

The happy couple...

Some of our cool gifts...our favorite wine and those adorable wine glasses, a wedding scrapbook, a cute wedding picture frame, and a movie bowl!

And last but not least...Matt wanting to feel special and read a card before everyone else. :)