and the winner is...

simple silhouettes "aster" in watermelon with a pear sash. ta-da!!!

this ended up being by far the cutest in person, and it was adorable and flattering on all three of the maids who accompanied me (though we did not try out the above pose). the pleated neckline is a cute detail that will allow my ladies to avoid the hassles of strapless bras and dress-adjusting fidgetyness. prepare to dance-party like it's 2009 with wild abandon and no wardrobe concerns! AND ALSO, it is super precious with my beloved sash (cue adorable picture we'll be taking), and everyone seems to be excited about it. FABULOUS!

many thanks to catherine, victoria and masey (as well as my mama and godmother) for taking a 6-hour-round-trip drive with me yesterday in pursuit of this dress. i had a fabulous time and very much appreciate your attendance and willingness to let me dress you multiple times and look you up and down (and sideways and backwards) for several hours. much love!!!

you can check this mamma-jamma off my to-do list. praise baby jesus in the manger (on thursday).

and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

in the future...

look! it's us! we're trying on dresses at the awesome bridesmaid store in nashville next monday! aw, we're so cute.

rooooooooad triiiiiiiiip! it's official: noon on monday, dec 22nd. not to be confused with noon monday today, like the lady from the store did when she called me at 12:15 to see if i was coming. i wasn't.

all bridesmaids are invited. bring some tunes and be sure to wear deodorant, cuz it's gonna be a long ride.

my colors are blush and bashful (if bashful is green)

this blog is in need of some pictures. so, here are some to remind you of what i want my wedding to look like. to recap:

you'll receive an invitation that is reminiscent of this awesome calligraphy design
slash this layout
you will look something like this, but with better flowers (you have such a pretty smile)
and be preceded by the two cutest girls in the whole world (who just happen to be related to me), looking something like this adorable picture from my photographer's blog
then i'll get married to the most fantastic guy eva, but he's not so fantastic as to have decided what he wants his groomsmen to wear (other than a tux), so no picture to illustrate what we'll find at the end of the aisle.

afterwards here's how we'll all look together, walking across the golf course at the country club to the reception (victoria just told a funny joke and kate's laughing and madge is admiring me and mandy's rill blonde)
there will be pretty lighting
and lush greenery
and lovely flowers
and things that look like this

and tasty cake, which we'll cut in the very spot that this couple i don't know but found on a photographer's website and had their reception at chickasaw did (and i may steal their candles-on-the-mantle idea)
and captain fantastic will probably make me drive off in his '68 winnebago, at which time we'll embark on a fabulous honeymoon to some gorgeous beach and return to be the cutest, littlest, most dog-obsessed married couple you know. sound good?

i think so.

behold

it has arrived. the dress. delivered to my office by the ups man just moments ago.

fabulous.

"i can’t wait to see you in it! i wish i could see you just for a bit and then forget completely," says captain fantastic.

taking stock

things we have accomplished:
* secured wedding site & celebrant
* secured reception venue, which includes all tables/chairs/silverware/etc and food
* secured bridal party
* secured cake lady
* secured wedding gown - which, might i add, will arrive via mail in my hot little hands NEXT WEEK! eeeeeekkkkkk!!!!!
* secured bridesmaids gifts (because on occasion, i surprise even myself with planning ahead)

things we have yet to do:
* secure band
* secure bridal party attire (you might be naked, but you'll have a great gift!)
* secure flowers
* choose menu
* finalize guest list
* register
* begin planning honeymoon
* everything else....

yikes. maybe it's time to do those things. at least SOMETHING. i've been at a standstill for several weeks. i'm hoping that the impending (as in mere hours from now) arrival of matron of honor slash cousin with husband, puppy, and parents (including craftiest of crafty aunt joanie, score) for the thanksgiving holidays will breathe new life into this shindig.

since i need to add a pretty picture to this post, how's this:
new style of coren moore bridesmaid dress! i realize this picture is not-so-awesome. click here to see it's full splendor. i think since it's named after my mom and grandma, it's a shoe-in. a trip to nashville is in the works for sometime in the next few weeks....

i'm an inconsistent blogger

apologies.

wedding-related things that have happened quasi-recently:

* my super-fab godmother visited the bridesmaid dress store in nashville that carries the designers i like and acted as my crash test dummy for in-person fabric and fit. she voted for the christy style from lula kate. i was excited, because that was my fav. then i looked at the "real weddings" section of their website and found this
yikes. methinks i need to make a trek to nashville and reevaluate. anybody up for a roadtrip? anyone? perhaps in person the collars are less...intense. if not, i may cry. and pick another style.

* my parents, aforementioned godparents, captain fantastic and i went to hear a potential wedding band. the drummer ended up being the husband of my former coworker and father of one of mom's students. small world. they also ended up being super white and singing songs like "build me up buttercup" and michael jackson covers circa 1986. don't get me wrong, i like that stuff as much as the next guy. we are just torn because we always pictured having some stax classics motown band at the wedding. but dad really likes them, so we may have a winner.

* an engagement photoshoot slot opened up for next saturday, yay! but captain fantastic has a guided fly-fishing tour of the little red river already booked and paid for, boo. back to square one.

* we have had two premarital counseling sessions that have been inspiring and exciting, and now we're even more pumped to get married. good news!

* i got an online coupon for this place, which will make the silhouettes i crave for realz with scissors and paper and a profile photo. goodbye frustrating photoshop! hello legit artwork to hang in our house after the wedding!
(and don't worry, i've nixed the cookie idea. you people were pretty adamant about that.)

* i've gotten tired of planning. don't want to plan, just want to do. i just want it to be june 20. i want all of yall to be here, i want the cake to be made and the flowers to be arranged, i want to be drinking champagne and wearing pretty dresses and staking my claim on c-dawg with a big ole platinum band. i'm temporarily over it. it being wedding planning. i'm hoping that i'll get my second wind soon....

more invite-tations

mkay so i keep returning to my favorite aspect of the wedding planning process thus far: invitations. i INSIST on designing them myself. insist. i have decided, and i shan't be swayed. i think this is one area where i really, truly can d.i.myself and it will turn out great. so i'm determined. maybe i can't print.i.y, but i can as least design.i.y.

this invitation exhibits the type of thing i'd really like to get to do with my life.
i also think it's a great invitation that's part current trend and part traditional. it's not too crazy, but just different enough. it could be done a little toned-down and in b/w to make it more traditional, yes? i like the map too. not that we'll need a map, but you know...

i also super love these:
again, in b/w it would lean more to the traditional side and less to the super-trendy. if you ask me. which, you know, you kinda did, reading my blog and all. i just can't get enough of calligraphic flourishes around lettering. yum.

i saw this on a blog the other day too. (i'm so bad at remembering where...i just grab pictures and put them in my "weddin thangs" folder for inspiration...i hope the internet fairy doesn't get me for not properly attributing my photos...) anyway, it incorporates the silhouettes i've come to adore, and i think it's super neat. this is definitely untraditional, but i think it's neat inspiration.
i love this reply card! to go with my theme, i think marley & sterling would be quite handsome in silhouette on the reply cards. you laugh (not you marie, you understand), but you also know that our dogs are like our children (we have definitely become those people) and i can think of few things more "us" than...uh, them. if we were getting married in someone's backyard, they would be accompanying our adorable flower girls down the aisle. alas, we're not. sigh.
while we're talking reply cards here, i have a few ideas. 1) postcard replies - save paper and moola by not necessitating envelopes 2) reply cards with cute options like "wouldn't miss it for the world" or "be there in spirit" are cute. too cute? maybe.

finally, i'm totally digging these invites:
for some reason i just really like the line across the page, kinda like the white-on-black calligraphy envelope in my previous post. i'm working on my handwriting as we speak. before you nay-say that i can't include monograms, silhouettes and fancily-written names in one wedding invitation, please revisit the above inspirations and notice all the different elements. i think i can make it work. do you?

engagement peektures

of all the millions of things that need be arranged for a wedding, the top priority on my list was photography. if i'm going to spend all the time and money to plan a big blowout, have all my friends and family come in town, labor over flowers and dresses and cake etc and so forth, you bet imma capture those memories in beautiful photographs to keep and treasure forever and always. i am an artsy type. i appreciate a good photograph. i cannot take a good photograph to save my life, but boy i do love pretty wedding pictures. so immediately after we got engaged, i began my quest. many hours of trolling the internet and setting up meetings and picking my jaw up off the floor after reading price lists later, captain fantastic and i met our wedding photography match: j.malahy photography. exactly the kind of pictures i'd been dreaming of, exactly the package i wanted, exactly the nice, comfortable kind of photographer i envisioned. jackpot.

bonus: engagement pictures. i'd never thought about engagement pictures before. just like i'd never thought about a lot of wedding-related things before...because i was never getting married before...but anyway, i thought about engagement pictures after i saw a bunch of them all over the internet. before anyone (ie mom) faints at the prospect of opening the morning paper to find a picture of me and my betrothed leaning against a tree in a warm embrace, never fear: we plan to go the traditional southern route with our announcement (me, alone, plain backdrop, b/w). however, i think it'll be pretty neato to have a fancy photo shoot in regular clothes, probably frolicking in the outdoors somewhere with the dogs. oh yes, the dogs will be making an appearance. they're absolutely verboten to participate in any part of the wedding or reception, but we have to involve them somehow! so finally, the point of this post: to end up with engagement pictures, we have to physically go somewhere on some day and have some pictures taken. the question: when? where? what on earth to wear?

do we have them sometime soon in the lovely fall weather with cute sweaters and colorful leaves and comfy socks? the wedding is in june, so it could be cool to have pictures in a different season, which just happens to be our favorite season (ie fall). then there's captain fantastic's Seasonal Beard to consider: some people don't like beards or think they're too scruffy and casual for professional photography, but i happen to love his fall/winter beard. and he does have it for half the year, so it's just as much "him" as his summertime babyface, which he'll be sporting at the wedding. plus these are engagement pictures and our engagement happened quasi-recently, so shouldn't the pictures be made close to the event for which they are named?

here's where the only myers-briggs personality trait this INFJ doesn't possess rears it's ugly head: gotta make a decision...having trouble...please help...

ps sorry no pretty pictures in this post. go look at josh-the-photographer's blog for your pretty picture fix :)

you're invited...

...to help me. surely someone who loves me dearly can write like this
or this
or this
or this
yes? anyone? k great. imma need you to write out our invitation text, to be printed a la these, with our monogram and/or silhouettes at the top:

and also our return address, to be made into a stamp and stamped on our invitations a la this:
aaaaaaand of course the individual addresses on the envelopes. that'd be super. the good news is we aren't having a seated dinner, so we won't have escort cards or any such foolishness. and also, you're off the hook for buying us this, or something equally awesome that will be on our registry (whenever we get around to actually making one...)

luminous luminaries

i sure hope the club allows burning candles, because we're going to need some at the reception. or a lot. look how adorable this diy project is - dip water balloons in melted wax to create tealight luminaries! love. there's nothing prettier than a delicate flame dancing behind a thin wall of wax.

black & white & adorable all over

my second favorite personalized wedding embellishment (after the requisite monogram) is: the silhouette. i think they're super chic, super pretty and super neato. guess what i've discovered? they're also super easy to make! woohoo! thank you photoshop. now to make an actual, good silhouette, you have to take a picture, in profile, in front of a white wall. since i keep forgetting to pin down my enfianced for this venture and therefore do not have proper photos, i played around with a few photos i already had, just for funsies. both pictures (from lou & j's wedding) had dark backgrounds, so the outline didn't come out so crisp, but i think they're pretty cute anyway. these are not the actual silhouettes i want to use, but you get the idea.

how festive and party-like is this?
i hate this picture because my neck resembles that of jabba the hut, but the pose is adorable, and i think captain fantastic looks pretty handsome
don't you just wanna kiss him? i do.

here are some things we could do with them:

programs...with the monogram, of course
coasters...i could diy these puppies with some silk-screening supplies and some chipboard coasters from a craft store on the cheap. for some reason i really love personalized wedding coasters - one of those completely unnecessary touches that just makes me clap my hands with glee. i'm thinking three different patterns: me, captain fantastic, our monogram.

how cute are these cookies? probably a little labor-intensive, but adorable nonetheless.
so one of these days, i'm going to get my camera, camp out in front of a section of white wall, and take a few dozen headshots to get this ball rolling for real. any other ideas of items just begging to bear an outline of my face?

lovely letters

i found these on etsy.com a while ago, and they spell how i feel about them. i'm thinking monogram. like the flower-covered-ribbon-hanging monogram or the middle-of-a-wreath monogram from the last decorations post. how hard could this be to make? anyone good with wire?

NEED.

things i must learn to do:

sew better (to make/modify/hem my own clothes)
make jewelry
generate hand-designed stationary en masse
needlepoint
bake from scratch

i wish i could do EVERYTHING myself. i have so many good ideas. sigh.

of course this presupposes that i have the follow-through to complete the aforementioned projects once i learn how to do them. let's add that to the list...

finish what i start

dekorashuns

so the wedding's not for 8 months, but i can plan details like decorative accents already, right? good. here are a few things i've found in my interweb wanderings that have struck my fancy.

* things that are round. topiaries, pomanders, balls of vines, whathaveyou. i like them.
i was thinking something like this in miniature form could be cute for tables. what is more country club that topiaries? topiaries IN an actual country club WITH black & white marble tile floors (in the entryway). perfect.
these pomanders are actually made of tissue paper! wowza. (see martha tutorial below)
topiary pomanders = best of both worlds. these are hanging from a tent's ceiling. they could also be arranged amongst vases with single candles/flowers on tables.
these are balls made of vines and christmas lights. i think they are very expensive. seriously though, how hard could it be to recreate with a pre-made vine ball and a string of lights? don't answer that.

* things that are made of paper or tissue paper. these are kewl because they are pretty, inexpensive and handmade - all components of my ideal wedding decor. i think all of the following examples are from martha stewart.
these are made of paper bags. paper bags! genius.
here is the aforementioned tutorial for tissue paper balls.

i envision a congregation of hanging balls of some sort behnd the band, which will be set up in front of a bunch of windows overlooking the golf course. pretty?

* things that involve monograms. duh.
love this. need this. will have this in some form or fashion.
this could be one fashion, which i like for hanging on double doors. like those of, say, a church. of course if i hang them on the door of my downtown memphis church they will a) not be seen by my guests since most people enter from the side door off the parking lot b) instead be seen gracing the shopping cart of one of the myriad neighborhood homeless people. notsomuch.

*things that involve candles. what's more gorgeous than flickering candles, i ask?
these are wine glasses with candles inside and little paper shades on top. too cute!
this may be the coolest thing eva: these are tin cans! with holes poked in them! and candles inside!
of course you can't go wrong with your standard paper lantern. i like these ones with the uneven ribs. they come in lots of des colores, but i think i like the natural ones best.

these are just a few of the ideas swimming around in my head right now. questions? comments? concerns? suggestions? the floor is now open.

bridesmaids, take three

ok. bridesmaid dresses again. this blog is thus far bridesmaid-dress-heavy, but that's kinda the point. bear with me. first of all i would like to thank kate's workplace for making an ad for a bridal magazine, thus necessitating kate's spending the afternoon perusing magazines for "inspiration" and helping me revisit some sites i had forgotten. i wish i were kate's assistant.

so here are a few other dresses i'd seen before, liked, then forgotten about come blog-post time. same color rules apply (ie bright-yet-tasteful shade of pink with a green or white sash). click on the pictures to visit the websites and see the full dresses and color swatches if you'd like.

there's this one, which is similar to the one i love that mom doesn't love:
and this one, which has a more structured-pleaty neckline (technical fashion term):

aaaaaand these ones, which have a variety of necklines and a cool style of skirt:
you can check out all of the silhouettes on that last website; they're all pretty neat. that could be an option for an everyone-picking-their-own-style-in-the-same-color deal.

so, some more options to mull over. i've requested fabric swatches from all of the above sites and have received swatches for the first strapless dress and the lilly dress from the first post. i know i've put a lot of energy into this, and it's really not the end-all-be-all of the world, but i want yall to a) be happy b) look cute c) fit in with my big vision....and we all know i can't make decisions to save my life. so there you have it.

oh and sashes are still a go. i think sashes will work with any of the options i've presented. i think we'll have to have a vote soon. or in 2-3 weeks when my swatches arrive...

and now, for something completely different, i am off to load up in this monstrosity
excuse me, amazing vintage vehicle, with captain fantastic and the pups for a camping & fishing weekend with mr. and mrs. biedenharn. i am taking long johns & a sweatshirt, what with it being october and all, and hope i'll have occasion to use them. yay fall!

dessert before dinner...typical

one of the more prominent effects of wedding planning that i'm currently suffering is an extreme craving for cake. nevermind the fact that for two weeks i've only been able to eat pretzels and toast (thanks to a digestive system that hates me) - i get daily, overwhemling urges to stuff my face with fondant and buttercream and orange-champagne filled devil's food and the like. yum. good thing muddy's bake shop is not on my drive home, or i'd have to do as the bishop suggested and put expandable panels in my wedding gown.

first i must confess that i love fondant. everyone knows it looks amazing, but i actually happen to love the taste and texture of it too. call me a freak. i have gazed longingly at fondant-covered cake art for years, and couldn't wait until the day when i could commission my very own. that day has come, folks. yesterday, mom told me that she's finally tracked down THE Cake Lady of memphis, and she is available for our wedding. woohoo! cue wedding cake blog post.

the first cake i ever fell in love with was this one:
love the flowers, love the colors, love it all. iffy on the shape though. i haven't decided whether i'm a round gal or a square gal yet. i'm leaning round. but definitely not octagon.

then there's this cake, which is simple and sweet and "me," minus the color scheme, which can obviously be corrected:
maybe with some flowers on top? i think it goes without saying that a monogram will be involved...even though i just said it. and no crystal-encrusted metal letters on top either. ew. gimmie something tasteful, un-sparkly and on the side of the cake itself, please.

of course i also drool over fabulous, intricate details like these (especially the blue & white one, gah):
and PAISLEY:
...but fabulous intricate details are expruhnsive. and then they get eaten.

so what about a combo of the first two cakes? something like this:
maybe with more swiss dots and less flowers?

i'm hongry.