IT'S HERE!!!!

AHHHH! Our wedding day is here! I can't believe at the end of today Brian and I will finally be married! We had a beautiful rehearsal yesterday and the sun is shining this morning. I am so ready to be Brian's wife!!!!!

 

For the LAST time as a MISS,

Final Dress Fitting

This past week, I headed to Francesca's for my last dress fitting before the big day! Everything fit *almost* perfectly...the seamstress has to take in one side just a bit more and even out the bustle, but other than that, my case of the Dress Blahs may be officially cured. These pictures aren't the greatest, and I assure you my dress looks much better in person. :)

Yay! It fits!

Bustle :)

I'm awkward.

 

With the veil

Our experience at the salon kind of went downhill after we bought my dress, which was kind of disappointing. I plan on writing detailed reviews of all of my vendors on Wedding Wire after our wedding day has gone off without a hitch. :) But, the most important thing is that my dress is here, it fits, and I pick it up on Thursday!

Very Inviting!

Our wedding invitations were designed by Preston's Stationery using Envelopments paper and pockets. I fell in love with pocketfold invitations when I first started browsing wedding blogs after we got engaged. I was so excited to create our own! Brian and I got to sit down and pick out all of the individual elements that would go into the invitations. I love how they turned out, and we have received so many compliments on them from our guests!

 

I didn't think I was the type of bride who would get all excited over paper...how much I have enjoyed planning our wedding has surprised even me! :)

Good Eats

I absolutely love our caterer, Dean & Brown. Not only have they been super helpful in making sure all of the details are put together for our reception, but their food at our tasting this past December was absolutely incredible! Brian and I, along with my mom and dad, tasted so many delicious dishes and the food rivaled anything I've had at a restaurant.

I made up these menu cards to sit at each place setting using a template I found online. Here is the full spread:


Cocktail Hour
Fresh Fruit, Crudite of Garden Vegetables, and Assorted Cheese Display
Maryland Crab Dip with Pita Triangles
Italian Bruschetta
Cocktail Meatballs in Sweet and Sour Sauce
BBQ Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon

Dinner
Classic Caesar Salad
House Garden Salad with Balsamic
Vinaigrette and Ranch Dressing
Herb Crusted Top Round of Beef with Her Demi-glace and Horseradish Cream
Boordy Apple Braised Chicken (Stuffed chicken braised in Boordy apple wine and garnished with sauteed apple slices --> Boordy is my favorite MD vineyard and the site of my bachelorette party this past weekend!)
Penne Pasta with Vodka Cream Sauce
Seasonal Sauteed Vegetables
Oven Roasted Red Potatoes

Our cake is being made by a local baker, Desserts by Rita. Their cakes are so yummy and moist that I've stopped in a couple of times since our tasting to pick up a slice. :) We are having a three-tier wedding cake and an assortment of cupcakes! I mean, as trendy as they are, I had to have cupcakes at my wedding. I made the signs that will explain all of the flavors, as well.

Cake
Bottom Tier--> Vanilla Cake with Raspberry Buttercream
Middle Tier --> Vanilla and Fudge Cake with Mocha Buttercream
Anniversary Tier --> Fudge Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream :)

Cupcakes
Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream (Brian's pick!)
Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream (My favorite flavor combo)
Raspberry Devils Cake with Raspberry Buttercream (My sister, the maid of honor's, request)

So many people have told me that on your wedding day, you're too busy to eat. I really hope that isn't the case with all of this delicious food! I know Brian and I will do our best to enjoy as much of it as we can. :)

If the Shoe Fits...

For a long time, I wanted to give into the bridal trend of colored shoes. I love the color of my bridesmaids' dresses, and I thought matching my shoes to them would make for adorable pictures! However, I was met with a lot of skepticism when I started talking about my "something blue" shoes. It wasn't quite the reaction I was after. But, after I saw this picture from our photographer, Meaghan Elliott, I found a solution! (This bride's wedding AND Meaghan's photos were also featured on an amazing wedding blog, Style Me Pretty. How neat!)

My shoes are the Nina Culver in Ivory Satin. I ordered them from Zappos! I think they were around $65 on sale when I bought them. I love that Zappos has free overnight shipping both ways for VIPs. Not that I order shoes online a lot or anything. :)

 

I added the Flower Pouf shoe clip from David's Bridal in Pool to match my bridesmaids and for my "something blue." $12 total. :)

 Here is a sneak peak of the look when I first visited my dress at the salon. 

I'm excited to do a cute shoe shot with my bridesmaids, like this picture from Grant Issac Studio!

Adorable right?!

Curing the Dress Blahs

Apparently, I had a very common experience that brides when they first see *their* dress have. I had been thinking about this dress since I ordered it (which, if you remember, was months ago). Which gave me plenty of time to second guess my decision and wonder what-the-heck I was thinking when I ordered it. Which led me to peruse more dresses online with absolutely no intention of changing what I was wearing. Needless to say, it led to many confusing moments.

When I finally got the call that my dress was in and went to see it, things didn't improve. It didn't help that the dress was so wrinkled when I put it on that it was almost unrecognizable from the sample. It seemed a little snug in the ribcage area (which I later found out was because she had put the built-in corset on the tightest hook...they tried to talk me into taking it in at my first fitting but I was not having it!) and it just hugged my body in a way that I didn't feel was flattering. I just remembered feeling so in love with this dress, and now I felt awful in it! I had probably the closest I've come to a bridezilla moment before making my consultant reassure me approximately ten times that whatever it was could be altered; that the top could be taken out, the hips could be taken in, and the dress would look much better once it had actually been pressed.

This is SUCH an unflattering picture, but it pretty much encapsulates how I was feeling that day. You can tell I can't breathe and Jennifer and Jon look a little bit scared of my impending bridezilla wrath.

A couple of weeks later, I returned to the salon for my first official fitting. It was kind of an odd day, as my mom had to rush to West Virginia to be with my grandmother who had a heart attack the day prior. I was bummed, but bridesmaid extraordinaires Kristi and Amber were able to meet me at the salon, which I was so thankful for. (My grandmother later underwent quadruple bypass surgery, and is currently doing much better...definitely a crazy and scary time!) Once I met the seamstress and we began talking, things started to look up! To start, the seamstress didn't hook the corset as tight as it could go, which actually made me feel like I could breathe. Once she started pinning the dress, I could see it actually become mine. I could finally almost picture what it would look like fitted to my body. It made my freakout seem a little silly in retrospect. She showed me a couple of bustle options, and we all agreed on the best option.

My final fitting is May 19th, and it can't come soon enough! Especially since I totally forgot to document the first fitting in pictures. I hope my case of the Dress Blahs has been officially cured. :)

Handmade Rose Petal Soap

After my first bridal shower, I wanted to give the hostesses, 8 of my mom's friends, a small gift to let them know how much I appreciated their kindness and everything they did to make my shower special. Nothing I found in stores felt quite right, so I decided to make them rose petal soap. I intended on writing up a little tutorial about how I did it, but it was really a lot of trial and error. The first batch was not something worthy of giving to anyone as a gift! I eventually figured it out and packaged them up. They were very well-received by all of the women, and I'm glad that the bit of work I put into it was appreciated. :)

The text at the bottom of the tag reads: "I hope your next shower is as nice as mine was!" :)

Hair and Makeup Trial

This past week, I had my hair and makeup trial with Baltimore Bridal. Jamie and Megan are both super sweet, and I think they created a wedding day look that suits me and definitely plays off of my inspiration pictures. Here are a few of the pictures I showed them before being done up. :)

Hair Inspiration: a low, loose updo a la Carrie Underwood. Our ceremony is outside, and I don't want to deal with worrying about my hair blowing in my face or curls in my hair falling out if I leave it down. Wearing it all up just makes life easier...plus, Brian loves my hair up. Just a bonus. :)

Makeup Inspiration: I didn't really know what to describe to Megan, but I loved these pictures...

Apparently I was feeling very inspired by Carrie. :)

My hair and makeup trial took place at Megan's in-home studio about 20 minutes from my house. Altogether, the trial for both parts of the look took about two hours. I got home in time to take some pictures in natural light and look back at them to see how I felt about them. Aside from a couple of minor tweaks, I am really happy with how everything turned out! You'll have to excuse my pictures, as it is pretty difficult to take decent pictures of the back of your own head. The day of, I'll also be sporting a set of fake lashes that do not appear here...I'm a bit nervous about them, but they did look awesome! It feels totally vain posting so many pictures of just my face and head, but it is what it is! :)

The last picture is with the hair flowers that I will be switching my veil out for during the reception. They are the Kate hair flowers from the Etsy seller AmieNoelDesigns. Love them!

Everything is really starting to come together, and it gets crazier every day. Three weeks from today we'll be married! :)