Surrounded by Love the Morning Of

Getting ready on the morning of the wedding is so much fun when you are surrounded by people who  you love and who love you!  I had some amazing girls helping me to be beautiful in preparation for the big day.

I was in one of my friends weddings, and the photographer had each bridesmaid help the bride with one thing, the shoes, the garter, the veil, etc.  When I brought this up to my maids, they all just wanted to jump in and help me.  I loved this idea!  The look of multiple hands on zipping up my dress, and putting on the belt.  Sure one girl helped me with my earrings, but those photos are all staged anyways.  She actually put them on me.  I felt so much love from each and every one of the girls.

Anyways, here are some pictures of us getting ready on the big day!

My best friend helping my gorgeous sister.

Vanessa helping my mom get ready

So happy as I got my hair done!

Helping me into my dress

Gifts of Love

My future husband and I wanted to get each other gifts before the wedding, but we wanted them to be meaningful.  This was such a hard secret to keep, and even harder to pick out something that he would like!

His main gift from my heart, was the "52 Reasons Why I Love You" where you take a deck of cards and glue on 52 reasons why you love your partner.   I love him so much, but I will be honest, I did look up some suggestions.  All of them were true, I just needed a little spark in my memory.

I tied them to the top of another present and my Maid of Honor Sister delivered it for me!

Inside the gift was something practical that I knew my future husband would really use and appreciate.  He is a writer and always has his computer and tons of writing accessories to lug around. I found a Cole Haan leather messenger bag which is was very impressed with.  (I did pat myself on the back for this one).

When it came to my gift, he was amazing!  We both grew up christian and have made Christ the center of our relationship.  Ted knew that I wanted a family bible to symbolize our commitment and future together.  Like I said, he is a writer and has always written me such beautiful letters.  This was no exception.

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

I love wedding traditions, and was so excited to pick out what would work as my "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something New."  I went without the penny in my shoe since I planned to wear sandals.  I did however plan to add a few other pieces.

I had read about an idea where you get a new fragrance for your wedding, and then every time you wear that fragrance again, you think of your big day.  Scent memory is amazing, and I fell in love with this idea.  My future husband and I searched for the perfect scent, and finally found one that we love in Marc Jacobs called Oh, Lola!

Draped around the fragrance you can see my "Something Borrowed" which is a pearl necklace that belongs to my mother.  I'm not sure if it counts as "Borrowed" still because I have yet to give them back. (I love pearls.)

For the Old and Blue, I chose a few different pieces.  I had a lace garter which my sister bought me on Etsy.   It is hard to see in the picture, but there is a blue jewel in the middle.  The other blue item was a necklace pendant that my future husband had bought me only a few months into dating.  It is a silver pendant with a silver cross at the top and three pieces of blue pearl.  This was attached to a broach that belonged to my grandmother along with her vintage ring that I inherited.  These three pieces were pinned to the inside of my bodice right above my heard (cheesy, yes, but this is the time to be cheesy).

Along with these items, my mother found one of my grandmother's old handkerchiefs which fit in perfectly with the vision of my wedding.

I had a custom made vail, which I did not plan to wear during the reception, so I got a ribbon with some sparkles for my hair instead.

It was so pretty, and I got a lot of compliments, however it was constantly coming untied.  Luckily I had an amazing Maid of Honor in my sister who was always there to fix it whenever I needed her to!

I was so happy that my photographer took pictures of all of my accessories!  While small, they had so much meaning to me and my family, especially the items that belonged to my grandmother.

Shoes

You can't walk down the isle in just a dress.  Well, you can, but the ground was hot and I wanted shoes.  So, I decided to get some shoes for my big day!  

On a whim, I bought a pair of Badgley Mischka 'Thora' Pumps for only $60 at Nordstrom's Rack.  Can you blame me?  They are gorgeous!  Unfortunately, just trying to break them in was too painful.  I mean really painful.  I knew that I wanted a pair of flats for the reception, but even for that hour during the ceremony, I wanted some kind of comfort.  The Badgley's were out.

I decided to go with a bridal staple of Nina and ordered the 'Crista' Pump from Nordstrom.  I liked the shorter heal because my husband and I are the same height, and I didn't feel like bending my knees in every picture.  These shoes were much more comfortable and I was so happy with my choice!

                   

Next came the flats!  I have been in love with Toms Shoes for years, and fell in love with the Crochet Classics.  I chose the Natural Crochet Women's Classic to wear for the reception.

While I was incredibly happy with my choices, one word of caution.  After the ceremony, we went down to the beach to take some picture.  I immediately took off the heals from the ceremony, but the Toms were no where to be found.  My mother had them, but she was busy chatting with guests during cocktail hour.  So, if you would like different shoes for the more "fun" pictures, make sure that someone knows when and where to take them so that you do not burn your feet on the sidewalk outside the hotel!

The Dress!

I absolutely love wedding dresses!  I was so excited to do as much dress shopping as possible and boy was it fun.  While visiting my future in-laws who live in Fresno, CA I brought it up to my fiancé's mother that we go look at some dresses.  I was so excited that she was up for it!  We went to a few different places and I got to try on different styles and found that I like lace and belts!  Like these ones:

Next it was time to set up appointments at home and I knew that I had a few family members who would want to come along.  I was the first in the family to have a wedding since probably 1990, so they were excited.  We tried David's Bridal because their website is awesome, and I knew every dress.  Unfortunately we did not have the best experience.  They hardly had anything in my size to try on and the girl helping us kept calling the train of the dress a "tail."  I am not an animal.  Plus, they make you ring a big bell for everyone in the store to see when you choose your dress.  That alone made me not want to buy my dress there.  It just didn't work out, but my aunts and close friends got to see me in some dresses.

The following day, I was a bit smarter and had just my mother and future mother in law come with me to a bridal boutique in Costa Mesa, CA called Mon Ami Bridal Salon.  While the dresses there were not as "cost effective" as say David's Bridal, they were having a trunk show for the English designer Augusta Jones.  She has beautiful soft designs with lace accents, and such romantic touches.  I really lucked out!  After trying on a few dresses, I was put in her "Juno" dress.  It is a gorgeous A-line dress, with layers of lace, a sweetheart neckline, and a beautiful belt.  This was my dress!  I loved the way it made me feel, and the way it made me look.  It was perfect for my summer, garden wedding by the beach.

Here is the dress on a model.  I planned to wear a slip underneath to make the skirt fuller.

Trunk shows are the best!  Because of that, I got a discount on the dress, and they added covered buttons on the back for free!  I also splurged and had a custom veil made to match the lace on the dress.  Here are some pictures of the dress from the day I chose it.  Mind you, this is all that I had to look at for five months until the dress showed up!

It is hard to have only a few pictures from the time you order your dress and the months that it takes to arrive.  But, it was worth the wait because I liked the dress on myself better than on the model on her website.  

Here she is on the day of the wedding!

With the lace detail that is matched in my veil.

Thanks for reading!

Love, Jen

DIY Wedding Date

While browsing through Pinterest, I noticed a new way to display and show off my wedding date.  I took that idea and decided to make it my own with materials that I was a bit more used to.

This is a super easy project with some very cute results!

Basically the idea is to put the wedding date in wooden numbers in a picture frame without the glass.

The materials for this project are:

IKEA Frame RIBBA (without the glass)
Wooden numbers for the date (the ones from Jo-Ann's fit perfectly)
Decorative Scrapbook Paper or Fabric for the background
Acrylic Paint
Paint brush
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun, or other liquid adhesive (just make sure it's stronger than Elmer's)
Pencil


The first thing that I thought of as a former college student was the pictures frames with matting that opened up for 3 pictures.  The frames come in three different colors; black, white, and a dark gray.  I happened to have an extra black one because the glass had broken which was perfect for this project!  (Even though my wedding colors are pink, white, and gray, I figured that this one could go in our apartment after the wedding.)

The next step was to get the wooden letters which are easy to get from Jo-Ann Fabrics.  While at Jo-Ann's I found a blue damask fabric that was on sale.

If you plan to use scrapbook paper, you will need at least 2 pages of the large squares. 

I figured that a nice yellow would go well with the fabric so I chose "Butter Cream" to paint the numbers.  Because it is a lighter color I did two coats.

Make sure to paint the numbers first because they take a while to dry.

Next it was time to start on the background for the date.  If you are using scrapbook paper, measure the paper slightly bigger than the openings of the matting and tape each one to the back of the matting.

If you are using fabric like me, the first step is to check the fabric and see which way you want it to go behind the matting.  I did this by simply placing the matting on top of the fabric.

Once you have chosen the look that you want, place the fabric on a table, pretty side down.

Then, place the cardboard backing of the frame on top and trace it with a pencil.

Simply cut out the piece and if you are using fabric like me, iron out any wrinkles. The end result should look like this.

 I tested to make sure that it looked good still under the matting.

Now it is time to mat the fabric onto the cardboard.  Because I was using a cheep hot glue gun, I knew that I had to work fast.  I started at one end and then a little at a time, glued the fabric down along the edges.  Make sure to stay along the edges only because they will be covered by the matting.

Like I said this stuff dries fast! So, when it is done the backing is already ready to be handled.  Simply put the matting, background and frame back together.

By this time I was able to check the numbers which were still a little tacky...  So I waited...

Finally they were dry enough and I could position them onto the frame.

It looks the same once glued down, but remember to do it quick and only after you are happy with the look.  

At this point, it looks cute and could be done, but I think it needs a little more.  I just added a little heart between each group of numbers.  This breaks them up and makes the frame look more like a date.  

Here's the finished product!

Here it is again with a better background.

This is another one that I made for a friend getting married this June.  Her colors are Green, Gray, and White.  I used scrapbook paper for hers but pretty much the same everything else.

I hope you like it!  This was my first attempt at a pictured tutorial so please be kind.  Let me know if you have any questions, and ENJOY!