Holidays {registry inspiration}

Last week was Thanksgiving and, after registering a couple months ago, I could not stop looking at all the things around the kitchen on Turkey Day and making mental notes of what I needed to add to my registry. It's one thing walking around Williams-Sonoma with a scanning gun and it's quite another to actually be cooking a feast and realize all the utensils, tools, and serving dishes that go into making it! Luckily we were at my fiance's family's place and they had all the necessities.

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So, I took the holiday as a chance to take a little inventory of the things on our registry. Some items got the boot. I'm continuing to take mental notes as the holidays get into full swing...roaster for 25 lb. bird? Check.

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At the moment I have two stores going - I chose Macy's, because they have everything and I know people will be able to go in-person if they prefer that, and Williams-Sonoma, because sometimes I like less options to choose from (and also because I love everything in that store). Potato masher? Check.

MyRegistry.com is a great option for couples that don't want to commit to a few stores. The world is at your fingertips (or mouse in this case). It aggregates any item you want into a central registry. You can even scan a barcode with your MyRegistry phone app and add it that way. Genius! If you'd like to do a non-profit registry or feature one that's close to your heart, you can do that too.

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I have to admit, when you are in the throngs of saving for a wedding, registering feels like the shopping you don't get to do!

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I love knowing that the things I'm picking out will end up being the gravy boats, casserole dishes, and platters that my groom, and our family, use on holidays for years to come. It's about more than getting presents - it's about making a house a home :)

Source: my phone + Instagram (movember anyone?)

Do you have any registry favorites?

Thankful for {family}

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays (I think I say this at every holiday). I love Thanksgiving because it's all about bringing loved ones together to cook and enjoy a wonderful meal and remember what we are all thankful for. No presents. Just family, football, lazy couch time, cooking together, feasting and a long weekend ahead. ahhh I love Thanksgiving! So this week I've been thinking a lot about family and how we can incorporate our past generations into our wedding day, show a little bit of our families' histories, and also honor some people who will be there in spirit. I love the idea of using pictures, because it adds a personal touch and gives guests a chance to see that you have your grandma's nose or your grandpa's gap-tooth. You can't go wrong with pictures.

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Are you doing something special to honor your family?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you enjoy the holiday with those you love!

Setting the Mood {with Food}

Hi E&Iers! I'm back after an amazing long weekend in Southern California at fellow blogger Taya's wedding (aka my future sister in law!). It was such a great weekend filled with laughs, dancing, friends, family, new friends and new family, in a gorgeous setting...it was everything a great wedding should be. I could go on and on, but I'll let Taya tell you herself when she gets back from her honeymoon. :-)

Onto my topic of the week - food! You might remember my post, here, on finding a caterer who would work with us in making everything affordable, while still including the elements we really wanted - quality, local food, family style dinner, etc. Well, we finally found them and it was worth the wait! My favorite thing about the caterers we found was that the owner, and lead lady of this husband-and-wife-owned catering company, really listened to what we wanted and figured out where to cut corners and where it made sense to splurge a little.

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I am so relieved to have our catering booked! I believe food can really help set the mood of the day - the cuisine is just one more place to infuse your style as a couple. Loving how these weddings used food to help set the vibe of their wedding day.

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My advice to fellow brides out there is that if you are not finding what you're looking for and you are getting a lot of 'nos' to what you believe is a reasonable request, keep looking and don't give up! Ask lots of questions and reach out to new vendors until you find someone who is ready to have a conversation and work with you. I think it's also good to know what things you absolutely know you want and what things you would be okay not having. For me, I knew I wanted family style dinner, but I was okay giving up the filet mignon.

If you are getting married in the Gorge and looking for a caterer, check out Boda's Kitchen. Ask for Sirota Johnston, the owner and boss laday. She's awesome.

Location Inspiration

As someone who is engaged, I'm asked all the time what my 'theme' is. I had a lot of trouble in the beginning figuring out what my theme was because I didn't want to restrict myself to one thing. The more I thought about my theme, I realized that without really consciously trying to come up with one, I already had! I would say my 'theme' is simply, the location. From the very beginning I knew I wanted to incorporate local elements whenever possible - from the decor to the cuisine. With our wedding location being in near Mt. Hood, we will be surrounded by great views, pear orchards and fields of lavender (not all at once, but you get the idea).

Source: Erica Ann Photography, lower left, lower right

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All these local inspirations were part of the reason I was drawn to our location in the first place, so it seems like a natural fit.

Did you use your wedding location to drive elements of your wedding or did you come up with a different 'theme' entirely?

You May Kiss the Bride {Finding an Officiant}

There is one thing I have been completely putting off in wedding planning...finding our officiant. It is the only thing on those helpful wedding checklists that I have let go by and not done anything about - not even a google search. I'm one of those people where if I don't know how to do something, I sort of just focus on the things I like to do until I'm getting down to the wire on timing :)  So right now I am staring at the 10-month check list and realizing we are already down to 9 months. But, hey!, some people plan an entire wedding in 9 months, so I'm sure we'll figure it out! The officiant is such an important part of the day. The whole reason we are planning a wedding is to get married after all! The person will set the tone and should be a reflection of my fiancé and I.

So without further ado, my search begins.

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If you have any advice for me about finding an officiant while being in another state, please do tell! Skype-friendly officiant, anyone?

Inspirations From Mexico

My fiance and I traveled to Mexico this past week for a friends' combined bachelor/bachelorette celebration. We had an amazing time to say the least! With weddings on the mind and bridal magazines as pool/beach side reads, I couldn't help but daydream of Mexico-inspired weddings. Please join me as I swoon over Mexican-inspired celebraciones de amor.

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Until next week.

Gracias!

Candid Photography {worth a thousand words}

This week I'm looking at photographers and discovering I'm drawn to all the amazing candid shots. Don't get me wrong, I love posed photos just as much as the next girl, but I think what sets great wedding photographers apart are the moments they are able to capture when no one is expecting it.

Sources: all Style Me Pretty

This week I'm going to Mexico for a friends' combined bachelor/bachelorette party. Finding a photographer will be next on my list when I return from vacation. I can't wait to keep looking! I am hoping photographers will be open to Skype meetings, at least until we narrow it down.

Follow up to last week's post - while I loved the dresses at Amy Kuschel, I don't think I found the dress for me, so the search continues!

Until next week!

Save-the-Dates {and the 10-Month Countdown}

Right now, I'm looking at the 8 to 10-month check lists (our wedding is July 20, 2013)...and if you've planned a wedding, you will know they are serious lists! They may look small as far as number of check boxes, but, in reality, they are some of the BIGGEST decisions of all! The wedding dress, the officiant, DJ/band, caterer, photographer, the registry and so on. Two months ago the date was July 5th. I had my ceremony and reception venue and day-of planner booked, our wedding parties all figured out, our guest list lined up - I was feeling good. Fast forward two months and I now have a new job that is keeping me crazy-busy, and nothing else booked for our wedding. Don't get me wrong, we have been looking into things and thinking about things, but you can't have a wedding by thinking about it ;-). Needless to say, it's time to get back in the wedding planning zone. The 10-month countdown begins.

So, that brings me to what we need to figure out this week. A couple, seemingly-unrelated, things that all tie together. The hotels/lodging, the wedding website and save-the-dates. Because we are getting married in a small town along the Columbia River Gorge that also happens to be a destination spot for many outdoor activities, from windsurfing to hiking to wine tasting (I consider wine tasting an outdoor activity), the lodging is in high demand. In a perfect world, we would love for our guests (or even just us and our wedding party with their family's) to group together and rent a couple houses in town. There are so many within walking distance of each other and downtown and we think it would be a great way to spend time together. Whether we can figure the house thing out or not, we will still need to find a hotel for people to stay at, which leads me to the two other things on our list needing to be done ASAP - the wedding website and the save-the-dates (if we do them). I wrote this post a while back about websites and save-the-dates (just realized you shouldn't abbreviate that, yikes!). Bottom line is we need to get the word out about our lodging recommendations to our guests so that they can book soon. Our wedding still 10 months out, but time is flying and we don't want to have last picks on the places to stay.

This brings me to the last thing on our list for this week - Save-the-dates. We are trying to figure out whether or not to do them. I think they are so fun and you can do so many creative things with them, but I'm trying to figure out if I can justify the time and cost for something I ultimately just want to lead people to our website where they can find the details on lodging and the weekend activities. Thoughts?!

Here are some I like:

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If only we could get our cat to sit still for a minute...

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Did you or didn't you use Save-the-Dates? Are you using a wedding website that also offers 'virtual' Save-the-Dates? What do you think about renting a house/houses for the bride, groom and wedding party to stay at over the weekend?

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Planes, trains and automobiles...all three might be possible modes of transportation for our wedding weekend next July. Almost all of our guests will be traveling by plane and/or car to reach our (not-too-far-away) destination wedding town of Hood River, Oregon. The actual wedding location is about 15 miles south of Hood River. So, high on our list of priorities is making sure everyone can get easily to and from our venue without worrying about getting back after enjoying some adult beverages. Thankfully, our ceremony and reception are at the same place, so we just have to arrange transportation to the the wedding and back to town (a.k.a. the after party). So this week, I've been looking at different options for transportation. Not all of them work for our location, but they sure are fun to look at!

My friends had one of these red buses at their wedding last summer and it was awesome! Guests love them and (bonus!) they are such a perfect photo opp!

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If I was getting married here in San Francisco, I would love to use trolleys! I used to live on the trolley line on California Street and even with that constant buzzing of the trolley line out my bedroom window, I never got sick of them.

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School buses would be super fun and actually would work with our location...

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As for the trains, there is actually a train in town that you can take around the area. Might be a fun pre-wedding day activity.

Did you provide transportation to and from your wedding? Any fun ideas that I'm missing?

Organize the Bride

This is the current state of my (lack of) wedding organization...

Embarrassing, right?! I need to find a better way before I have a stack that is actually falling over, not just looking like it wants to. While those of us planning our weddings are lucky that we can keep a ton of information on our computers, we inevitably end up with some unsightly wedding-related things with no home. In my stack are magazines, contracts, vendor business cards, a wedding planning book, etc. And while I know I could file some of it on my computer and toss the paper versions, I find that I like to have some things that I can pick up and look at. A good old binder or accordion file would be a good start, but there are other shapes and sizes that wouldn't fit and would end up like the above picture (in a teetering stack).

So, this week, I started thinking about what I'm going to do to organize this mess.

I love these hanging organizers...

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BUT, I live in an apartment in San Francisco, so it goes without saying that I ran out of wall space and extra rooms a while ago. If I had my own office, I would love to use something like the above options. It would be great to have the magazine tear-out pages hanging, and business cards and bridesmaid dress swatches pinned up.

 Then there are the typical office-looking organizers. Which, again, could work if I had a dedicated 'office.'

 

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What I need is something in between. Functional, yet cute and versatile enough to repurpose after the wedding. I also want something that can fit things of different sizes; from magazines, to books, to invitation samples and stamps. I think any of the below options could work.

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I'm especially liking the last baskets, because they would be so easy to use after the wedding (from storing towels in a bathroom, to books in a bedroom, etc.). The only problem is my cat would think I bought them for him as scratching posts ;-)

How did you tame your wedding stack of stuff?