Hi girls! A few weeks ago I met with my florist and starting discussing ideas for all the flowers. We starting focusing on the bouquets because I felt it was a good place to start. First of all so you don't have to run back to my very first blog I wanted to talk again about my wedding colors. My main color is palm beach coral

  So this is my main color that I am working with. My girls will all be wearing this color and picking their own favorite styles for their dresses. Other colors I am adding into the scheme are lime green, yellow, and red. Here were some of my first inspirations

So we worked with the pictures and changed them a bit. But these are the main colors I would love to see in my wedding. Maybe not so much the same flowers, but the same colors and how they look together. Here is the start of my bouquet. I like the way it is starting to look but I feel like it is missing something. I love the way calla lilies look together as well... anyone have any advice on what to do with it....

Also, for all my pink and orange girls out there. Here is some more of my

Until next time... Happy Planning! =)

Photos: David's Bridal, My Personal Artist, Personal Photos

Well, I am spontaneous thats for sure. If you have been following my blog you saw that I was frustrated with our venue because they only had a list of approved caterers to choose from. Like 7 to be exact. They kept dropping off one by one for different reasons. They were quoting us WAY over our budget and we realized, this is NOT what we had in mind. I was started to feel like I wasn't happy with my venue anymore and I just couldn't picture my wedding and reception being here and look like I wanted it to. So after hanging out with some friends over the weekend and talking... we have found our PERFECT venue and reception location. My friend Sarah is the person to thank! She works for a wedding photographer and did a wedding this Saturday at a winery that is only 20 minutes from our house (which beats an hour to our old location!) I am not from this area originally so I knew nothing about it, and somehow Jon living here his whole life, also wasn't aware of it. So we visited the winery on Sunday and fell in love with the place! And best of all, you can have ANY caterer you want. We have also already found our caterer that is only about 8 dollars a person!! Sounds too good to be true?! Well more on that later! Here is our wedding and reception location now!

Willow Ridge Winery

Shelbyville, IL

Where the ceremony will be

Some pictures of the reception area

The tasting room

All photos taken at: Willow Ridge Winery Shelbyville, IL

 I could not be happier with our location now. We did have to move our wedding date to June 26th, 2010 because they were already booked for the 19th. The only thing we will be losing money on is about $60 on our Save The Date Magnets we ordered. I will be ordering them again today with the correct date. We should be able to get our deposit back from our other location and wedding coordinator we hired. Let me know what you girls think! I'm so excited now! =)

Until next time, happy planning!!

Hey all! I am getting married in June and we are having an indoor ceremony at a banquet center. I am looking for ideas for decoration at the end of the isle where the officiant, groom, and I will be standing for the ceremony. I am not sure if a wedding arch would look good, or some other kind of decoration? Where we are standing will be slightly elevated on a couple of risers. I just don't know what to do about the decorations... any ideas? I really love these with the fabric...how would I make these arches.. or buy them? Thanks for reading!

photos from wedding bee

     Well, up until this day of planning my wedding I have been keeping it together and not let anything get to me.  I am a HUGE worry-wart so I am really surprised I have lasted this long without having some kind of breakdown! Haha! Anyways, a couple of days ago we met with another caterer to see what they had to offer us.  We are still waiting on the written up proposal from him, so I may be getting ahead of myself here, but all the hidden fees are KILLING me!!! It cost extra for this, and for that, and for this... blah blah!!! I really knew caterers were expensive but, goodness! We decided on a pasta buffet dinner, because we were told this was close to the cheapest thing to do (aside from all finger foods). Well, the first caterer we met with drew us up a proposal for 150 guests, which is what we are expecting at this point, and it was still over 4 GRAND! We are having completely cash bar but considered having champagne for toasting. I don't know...I just knew it would be a lot, but I didn't know it would be like this.  I am just stressing out about it, and worrying about how we are going to pay for this.  My family may be able to help a bit, but not a lot I don't believe. The fiance and I got in a bit of an argument because he said he doesn't want to pay that much for pastas, and so on and so on. It kinda snowballed and I really was ready to just run away and get married. BUT, I know that isn't what I want, but these caterers are just not telling us what we want to hear. Here in the next couple of days, we are just going to get in touch with the caterers and see what else we can work out. Thanks for listening girls... but I will stop rambling now! Have any of you had these worries with caterers?

We got our engagement pictures back! Here are a few of my favorites!

-Nathaniel West Photography-

-Nathaniel West Photography-

We had an absolute blast at the shoot! I think they turned out sooo well! We also order our save the date magnets with some 4 of the favorite pictures on them! I can't wait to see those! Until next time girls, happy planning!! :)

Hey all! So the fiance and I just returned from Jamaica on Sunday! We had a lot of fun and no hurricances! We had a great time and it really is a beautiful country!

After returning from Jamaica, we were headed for a busy wedding planning week! :) I love being productive and getting things done for the wedding though. We got our engagement party invites finished and I put them in the mail today! I am really excited for all of our families to meet. Here is the finished product. Invites came from Target and we type them up ourself and printed them out! Very easy and perfect with our color theme!

(invitations from Target)

Also, yesterday met with a caterer who is working on a proposal for us. And met with a wedding coordinator, who we went ahead and signed the contract with! We loved her and felt she offered so much for the price. For our day of wedding coordinator, the fee is $450. This includes but is not limited to-at least 3 meetings before the wedding, rehearsal coordination, ceremony and reception set-up and clean up, greeting and coordination of vendors, supervision througout the event, and set up timeslines to pass out to vendors. She was just what I was looking for!

Also, tonight at about sunset, we are heading out to do our engagement pictures, which I am SOOOO excited for! I will post them as soon as they are avaiable! Thanks for reading, and until next time, happy planning!

     Hi ladies! Brittany here, still in the mist of planning this engagement party we are throwing to get everyone in our family together! We thought it would be fun and a great way to get everyone together and meet! Well, we have set the date for September 12th. We are still having it at my fiance's youth center that him and his brother own. (Its basically a big kitchen and dining area where everyone can get together!)

    So, we've bought our invations and plan on finishing them up this weekend. They are DIY invites from Target. They have pink and orange stripes around them and then you just type them up on your computer! Should be easy enough I'm hoping. I did have a question about the invites... anyone know the proper wording we should use? Again, myself and fiance are throwing the party and its mostly for our families and friends. I will take some pictures once I am all finished with them!

   As far as the party goes, we have a great list of things we are going for. We have bought white table clothes, and a mixed range of pink, orange, and lime green plates, cups, napkins, forks and such! I also bought a couple little sets of seashells to throw out on the tables to keep up with the beach theme. My MOH, mom, and myself will be making and preparing most of the food! We are having a BBQ, (hoping for nice weather) and lots of yummy food! Instead of a cake we are having a cupcake tree! With a orange and pink icing, and lime green sprinkles! We will be making delicous free-squeezed orange lemonade that for sure will be a big hit!

   We also are getting our engagement pictures done in about 2 weeks and we will be displaying those at the party! As far as favors I am still stuck. But I am thinking about ordering our Save-The-Date magnets and having those as part of our favors. The close family and friends at our party will be the only onces to recieve the magnets. I also thought about doing some Hersey's hugs and kisses somehow and tying a little note on there saying "Hugs and Kisses from the Soon2B Mr&Mrs"

  So how does everything sound ladies? I am really looking forward to the party and am very excited about getting our pictures done as well. Next week I won't be posting much because myself and the fiance are heading to Jamaica for a vacation! =) I'll post some pictures when we get back for sure! Until next time, Happy planning!!

Hello girls! Today my mom and I spent about 3 hours trying on and searching for my wedding dress. I wasn't going to be disappointed if I didn't find "the dress," I just figured we would go somewhere else and look if I didn't find anything. Well, needless to say I not only found one dress I was IN LOVE with, I found two. So I narrowed it down from about 20 dresses to 2, and I had the hardest time! But I feel great about my choice! I of course will have to order it because I needed the extra length. Gotta love being about 5'10! So here are a few pictures of me and trying on dresses! I had so much fun!

And... TA DA! The dress!! = )

And I decided to go with the birdcage veil! So cute! I'll have to figure out the flower that looks best at some point! I just love the look

Until next time ladies! Happy planning!

    Over the weekend while visiting home my mom and I decided to stop in a local bridal shop to try on some dresses! I was very excited to say the least. I went in with an idea knowing pretty close to the style I wanted. I figured they would have a couple dresses so show me and ones I could at least try on. Now, I don't know if because this was a local smaller shop or what, but they didn't carry much in my size. I'm not huge or anything, but I'm not tiny by any means! Lol! SO, anyway, I do have curves and what I want is a corset top (for sure) and I am thinking a mermaid (trumpet) bottom. For a homecoming in HS I worn a dress with this same style and it looked really good on me! Well, the lady there didn't show any interest in helping me. I don't know if because it was the holiday weekend and she was just ready to get out of there or what. I told her what I wanted and she replied with.. "I don't think we have that in the size you are looking for." I was also tell my mom I didn't want a A-line because it made me look bigger and didn't show off my curves! The lady overheard and made some comment that an A-line with hide a big butt and hips!!! I almost walked out of the store on that note. Haha! Needless to say, I did get to try on one dress. It was corset top, but A-line skirt. And I know for sure I won't be buying from that lady at all! I'm hoping when I make an appt. with David's Bridal, my experience will be much better.

I didn't like the dress I tried on much, but the top it something similur to what I want. What do you ladies think? Anyone else have any dress shopping problems!?

  I have been trying to visualize my wedding day.  Trying to see myself and what I would like to happen on "my day." Although I have completely decided I do not need a wedding planner... I have seen my actual wedding day in my head needing some assistance. I can picture myself worrying and running back and forth between rooms, making sure everything is being set up correctly, or possibly setting it up myself. I can see my family and friends running around trying to organize and set up stuff with no direction because I'm off getting my hair and makeup done (while thinking about how I need to be giving direction.)

  To be honest, I'm a HUGE worry-wart. I am afraid I would be so worried about everything, I wouldn't take the time to breathe and enjoy my day. So ladies, I've decided I have to have a day-of wedding coordinator. I have been researching and email companies all week long looking asking about prices and checking out what their services entail. I have seen day-of coordination everywhere from $750-$450. Needless to say I will be interviewing the lady with the $450 fee here in a couple of weeks. Sounds like a great price, next I need to make sure she offers what I am looking for. Is anyone considering a day-of wedding coordinator only? If so, what are some things I need to make sure and look for? Any info I appreciate! = ) Thanks ladies!