Our Luuuvvv Session

It's rainy and cold and miserable outside, but I am happy! Why? Because I finished my paper (YAY!) and tomorrow is my last day of work before my long four day weekend (OH YEAH!).

So, I figured, since I am feeling quite amorous with life right now, I thought I would share the love and show you guys a few photos from our "Luv Session." Taken by the fantastic photographer and generally nice person Kate Headley during this past Cherry Blossom festival, these were so much fun to do...although the wind was not too forgiving on my hair. They still turned out great nonetheless. These are my two favorite shots from the day.

All photographs take by Kate Headley (check her out!)

I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, a great day or wonderful set of days off work, and that you share all the LUV you got to give!

Etiquette police

I couldn't help but notice a blogpost today - a blogger I follow recently got engaged. Honestly, I couldn't be more happy for her.

However, she blogged about the specs of her ring - karat size, everything.

Something about reading it - quite honestly I don't care how big your engagement ring is - turned me off, and I found myself scrunching my nose at the absurdity and abruptly stopped reading.

I'm no etiquette police but I do not go flaunting around my engagement ring specs all over the blogosphere. If people ask, sure I'll share, but I don't just offer up the info because I find it obnoxious, who cares about the carat size or the clarity? People who ask are even tackier than those who just offer it up.

What say you nearlyweds? Offering up your engagement ring specs, tacky or no?

Rehearsal Dinner Venues

When I set a goal of booking the rehearsal dinner venue by November that seemed so far away.. Can't believe it's now, and it's almost past now. Guess we need to get in gear on this!

So I'm thinking.. even though I'd really like to do a dinner in Arlington, it probably makes the most sense to do something semi-near the venue. We'll probably have 30 guests - just wedding party and their dates, our parents, some other important types.. So yeah 25 or 30.

Right now we're looking at these spots: Villa Mozart, Courtside Thai, and Bollywood Bistro. I've actually talked to Villa Mozart and Courtside Thai and they would definitely host our dinner, have never been to or talked with anyone at Bollywood Bistro - I just found it on yelp, it has good reviews and it's right in downtown Fairfax.

We are still debating whether we want something more formal (like Mozart) or less formal/maybe more exotic than Italian (like Thai or Indian).

I still think a lobster feed at Foster's Clambake would be amazing, it would bring in my Maine heritage, but it seems prohibitively complicated to either get everyone there (National Harbor) or find a venue to have them come and cater.. Also I just checked their yelp review, doesn't look good - I've been to their location in Maine and it was awesome, it's too bad they can't make it work better in DC... It is just one review, maybe they had a bad day.. Still probably too complicated to even worry about.

Anyone been to any of these places? Anyone know of any other great places right in downtown that could host 30 people? I'd like to avoid the nearby strip malls if at all possible.

A Pocket Full of Poseys...

(Source) Or rather, a bouquet full of roses is what I'm talking about! Our lovely florists, Atelier Floral Design, put up some photos on their Facebook fanpage from a wedding they did at Glen Echo Park over the summer and I started squealing! It made me SO excited about my wedding. The pictures totally inspired me to share with you guys what I am hoping to see in March.

(Courtesy of Steve O'Toole Photography)

When planning this wedding, the ONE thing (out of many...tee hee) that I HAD to have was real flowers. Not trying to knock anyone that uses silk or other fake flowers, but it's just not my thing. Soon after discovering wedding blogs, I stumbled across Saipua and was floored by Sara's ability to make flowers look wild and put together at the same time. Her blog, along with a huge list of others, have fed my total obsession with all things floral.

Below are a few ideas for my bouquet. We are using garden roses, anemones and berries in hues of peach, ivory, green and white. I want the look of peonies, but cannot afford them. Rachel and Jennifer will use large peach garden roses to give the look of peonies, but without the cost (SCORE!).

(Source)(Source)

For the bride's attendants, I have asked for purple bouquets. The flowers will be similar to those within my bouquet, but using a mix of lavender and deep purple hues.
(Source) For the centerpieces, there will be a mixture of tall arrangements resembling the second photo above with mini tea light holders hanging from the branches. We will also have clusters of ball jars with green, peach and lavender arrangements. Our third centerpiece will be books with a flower arrangement on top or surrounding them.

(Courtesy of a lovely bride whose image I saved and did not write down the location of this picture for, please comment of this is your image and I will properly credit you)(Source)

Rachel and Jennifer will also hang paper lanterns for us inside of the bumper car pavilion. A sprig of lavender at each place setting will add a little extra piece of loveliness to the overall table decor.

These two are truly awesome. I emailed them WWWAAAYYY before one even thinks about hiring a florist (in actuality, when Mr. Glen Echo and I met with them, another florist actually turned down my request to meet with her because she said it was too early for me to think about flowers...too bad for her, oops I booked someone else). They were so nice in answering all of my premptive/budget planning questions. When we met in January (yes, they were booked in January, over a year before my wedding) they did not question or hesitate considering my wedding was so far away. In general, they are such nice people, considerate of time (and budget) and did a fantastic job at one of my best friend's wedding this summer. I cannot wait until March when I get to see everything in person! Just 4 months and 2 weeks away!

oh goodness another 2 dress bride

weeee I'm so excited!! ok I've mentioned this before but to sum up, I bought a dress in March that was beautiful and cheap and made my mom cry - but it didn't make me swoon. I bought it because I liked it well enough and it was an amazing deal (priscilla of boston dress for under $200? Yes please). I had done some other dress shopping and fell in love with a couple different ones but they were way out of my price range.

Enter preownedweddingdresses.com. I've been randomly trolling the used/sample dress resale sites for a long time, hoping hoping hoping I would see one of the 2 dresses that made me swoon in the beginning. The Jim Hjelm one is often up for sale, almost never deeply discounted because honestly, they don't have to. It's gorgeous and popular. The Sarah Danielle dress is not so common, I almost never see it for sale used or in a sample sale. Until last week! I did another google search for "sarah danielle sample sale" and up popped a new preownedweddingdresses listing - it was the dress. it was $400. and it was close enough to my size that alterations would be easy. The girl says she bought it as a sample but ended up wearing a different dress for her wedding so this one has never been worn or altered, and it has absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I just paid for it via escrow.com (recommended over paypal by all the wedding dress resale sites) and it should be on its way to me tomorrowwwwwww!

I would post pictures here except Mr. Fairfax follows this blog - but here's a link to it (mr. fairfax verboten!!). weeeeee!

Any other 2-dress brides? Anyone else have a dress they're not crazy about? My advice is to keep looking. I was gonna be fine with wearing the dress I bought - it really is quite pretty - but now that I'm getting this one.... Now I get what all the fuss is about.

Style Board Challenge

Announcing the Dessy-Pantone-OneWed Style Board Challenge

Win $500 in Dessy Accessories or up to 8 Lela Rose Bridesmaids Dresses We are so enamored by the new Dessy-Pantone Style Board tool that we have teamed up to offer a luck bride (actually 4) $500 in Dessy Accessories for the best inspiration board they can create. In November, December, January and February we will be selecting a monthly winner. At the end of February we will select our grand prize winner who will win up to 8 Lela Rose bridesmaid dresses. We’ll, of course, showcase our favorite inspiration boards and brides-to-be on the OneWed Savvy Scoop Blog