Showing posts with label wedding planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wedding planning. Show all posts

Friday, April 13, 2012

Registry Faves

In late February, JMC and I went ahead and completed our registry. He was so excited to go just so he could use the scan gun (boys will be boys I guess). We decided to register at three stores: Crate and Barrel, Belk, and Target. This way, our guests will be able to choose at least one store within their vicinity as well as their price range.

For our china, we chose Lenox Quatrefoil, a pattern that was part of the Spring collection this year. Its hard to see in the picture below, but it has both platinum and gold detail, making it easier to pair with either color chargers or accessories.

For casual dinnerware, we chose the Hayes Dinnerware from Crate and Barrel. We loved the charcoal gray color and that the collection included all the pieces that we thought we would need (pasta low bowls as well as plain bowls and multiple different options for serving pieces).

Dinnerware


Other essential items for our registry included a Kitchenaid mixer, stainless steel measuring cups and spoons, and a Rowenta iron.

The mixer that I chose was the Kitchenaid Custom Metallic Series Copper Stand Mixer because I just LOVE the color and know that it would go with any kitchen decor that I decided on throughout the years. Its a little more expensive than the other ones, so I'm keeping my options open and may change my selection to one in navy or the new almost Carolina blue that was just released.

Stainless steel measuring cups and spoons are items that will last almost a lifetime. These ones are from Crate and Barrel, so they're sure to be high quality but not overly expensive. I love that the numbers are engraved and won't rub off after a number of washes. Also, they are heavy-duty enough that they won't bend or get flimsy over time.

The Rowenta iron is a must-have for our new household. Their irons are of such high quality, and like the measuring cups, will last for a number of years. It might seem silly to have a preference for a certain iron, but after using one of these, it is obvious that other irons just don't compare.

Registry Essentials



Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Jewelry Obsessed.

Thanks to my future-mother-in-law and my future-sister-in-law, I have become jewelry obsessed.

I just can't help it. Its turning into a problem. I'm not kidding. There are times (like 5 minutes ago, for instance) when I am on a website in the jewelry section and I literally have to keep myself from pinning all the things that I actually want.

It doesn't help that shopping for bridal & bridesmaids' jewelry has given me an excuse to spend hours after work searching through websites for possibilities.

Bauble Bar
I think I could spend days on Bauble Bar and constantly find new pieces that I want.



Kate Spade
I probably look at the Kate Spade website daily. At least weekly. I got these gold knots from JMC for Valentine's Day and they quickly became my go-to stud. I'm wearing them right now.





J. Crew
I DEFINITELY look at the J. Crew website daily. There is no question. Mrs. C gave me the aqua link bracelet and I wear it with everything that color may remotely look good with.

Source: jcrew.com via Kendall on Pinterest

Source: jcrew.com via Kendall on Pinterest


I may be behind the times, but I just recently stumbled upon Sylvia Benson, Loren Hope, and Swell Caroline.

Sylvia Benson
What's great about Sylvia Benson's jewelry is the number of color options. Both this bracelet and this necklace come in five or more colors of beads.





Loren Hope
I love the simple designs of Loren Hope that add just a little something extra to an outfit. No kidding, I want these studs in every color they come in (navy, hot pink, sea foam, yellow, all gorgeous).





Swell Caroline
I love Swell Caroline's simple earring options for my bridesmaids. I just can't quite decide on which ones!







What jewelry are you loving right now?

Monday, March 19, 2012

Finally decided on shoes.

I swear I couldn't have been more indecisive about shoes. Turns out I just had a ridiculously specific idea in my head of what I wanted and couldn't find it anywhere! For more details on my shoe specifications, see my previous blog post about wedding shoes.

Thank goodness for Nina Shoes' 'Design Your Own' feature and the invention of shoe clips.

At first I was skeptical about the idea of shoe clips. I wanted my shoes to be special and for some reason I had this preconceived notion that shoe clips might make them look cheap. False. Turns out that shoe clips completely solved my shoe dilemma.

With the 'Design Your Own' application on Nina's website, there are a number of different styles of shoes to choose from, including sandals and pumps that range all different heel heights. They have a bunch of different colors, and you can even make different parts of the shoes different colors if you want.



I went with a 5-inch (wow, I know, I'm nervous about that part) satin pump with a 1-inch platform in all-over navy. They have an almond closed toe, which is exactly what I wanted.

The shoe clips I chose were from Absolutely Audrey, a website that I had never heard of until SRC sent the link to me.

The center stones look a little bit blue, but I'm pretty sure they are clear. Either way, I know they will look great. What I love most about doing my wedding shoes this way is that the shoe clips add that extra oomph that I was looking for, but I'll still have the plain navy shoes to wear on other occasions after the wedding!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

LWD

I have my wedding dress, but what about dresses for all the other wedding events to come in the next six months before our wedding?

We have a few couple's showers and I have a bridal shower, not to mention the rehearsal dinner, so it looks like I have some shopping to do.

It never fails that Lilly Pulitzer has beautiful LWDs every year. I'm going to have to make a trip to the new SouthPark store in Charlotte when I'm there next weekend, and maybe I'll be able to try on a few of my favorite ones from their website!








I also love this one from Kate Spade, and its a little dressier. The embellishment at the neckline is gorgeous and acts like a built-in statement necklace.




Can I also just mention how easy Pinterest makes it to embed pictures into blogs? I just can't get enough.

This Polyvore set that I found on Pinterest is an adorable outfit with one of this season's most popular trends, lace. I am DEFINITELY on the lace train. I also especially love the Kate Spade bow & pearl earrings!


I just can't wait to wear these with a great tan and my Stuart Weitzman nude pumps. Maybe these earrings to throw a little navy in the mix:



Has anyone else found any cute LWDs?

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Shoes Shoes Shoes

I'm struggling to figure out what to do about a bridal shoe.

I want them to be FANCY; to stand out from the rest, but I might have too high of expectations. I have a number of criteria:

1. I'm short. Only 5'3". I need at least 3" of heel. Preferably with a platform.
2. I want a full shoe. I will settle for a peep-toe, but I realize I'm going to be walking around in these for 8+ hours and I don't want my feet to be bleeding at the end of the night (although the Hawaiian sand will surely heal them over our honeymoon)
3. This is where I'm really torn. Color. I have recently decided that I want my bridal ensemble to be completely ivory. But I haven't converted my mind to ivory shoes quite yet. I was originally set on navy blue shoes... but they are not the easiest things to find. Then I thought about gold, champagne, or even hot pink. I don't know, I'm all over the place.
4. I'm not spending more than $300. Sure, I would kill for love a pair of Louboutins, but I don't have that kind of money lying around. Have I been checking every designer discount website religiously for shoes since October? Definitely.

IDEALLY, I would wear these:




But again, not feasible. Not just because of the price, but because they don't make them anymore. Bummer.

Have I found anything out there that remotely comes close to these? Of course not.

Here are a few contenders. Note that by contenders I really mean "shoes I would be settling for."

Source: heels.com via Kendall on Pinterest


These shoes are beautiful, but I tried them on when I was trying on my wedding dress and it was obvious that I couldn't manage to wear these for 8 hours.
Source: bhldn.com via Kendall on Pinterest


I love the sparkles on these and they're the right color of gold (not too yellow), but they're a little boring. I know that's a weird thing to say about shoes that are completely covered in sparkles, but I just don't feel like they would be worth $300.
Source: heels.com via Kendall on Pinterest


I love the bow on these ones. And they're the perfect color. But are they also too plain? These are probably the ones that I have the least problem with


Source: bhldn.com via Kendall on Pinterest





If these were more Carolina blue than aqua, I would probably buy them. But they just wouldn't work.














Long story short, I just don't know what to do. I don't want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a pair of shoes that I'm "eh" about. I guess all I can do is keep looking... but time is ticking because I need them before my first dress fitting!! Anyone have suggestions on other places to look?

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Bridesmaids

So I was finally able to ask all of my bridesmaids! I am going to have a Maid of Honor and a Matron of Honor, and I asked them a couple of weeks ago with a bouquet of flowers sent to each of their houses. Besides them, I have seven other bridesmaids (big party, I know). I had some trouble getting the cards that I had ordered to send them all, and they finally came in and I finished sending/giving them out!

I found a million ways to ask bridesmaids on Pinterest, but I ended up going with the cutest cards. My mom found them on Zazzle, which I had never heard of before, but they have a few cute things that are very inexpensive. The cards I ordered for each bridesmaid had a picture of that person and I together on the front, then the girl's name, and the inside had "10 Reasons You Should be My Bridesmaid." The reasons were things like "What else do you have to do on 9/29/12?" and "I want to show off how hot my friends are." The template came with a set of 10, but I changed them around just a little bit.

So the next step (after making sure they all agreed), was to give them all the low-down on plans, dresses, shoes, etc. I sent them all a really long email (forgive me), laying out all the deets and also requesting that they each send me an individual picture for the wedding website!

For dresses, I decided on the J. Crew short silk taffeta line in Dark Pacific. It was a pretty easy choice since I pretty much live my daily life in J. Crew. There are 8 different styles, and I'm letting my girls pick whichever one they want. I realize people's body types will differ, and they will feel comfortable in different things. Especially with so many girls, I want everyone to like what they're wearing so we all have a stress-free day when the wedding comes. Here are just three examples of the styles:


I decided to just go with nude patent pumps, something that at least a couple of my bridesmaids will already have and definitely something they will all be able to use again. My cousins found an adorable pair at Target for really cheap that will be perfect:


All of my girls are so excited to be a part of the wedding and a lot of them have already bought and received their dresses (J. Crew has the BEST shipping EVER). I am so lucky to have this group of girls to stand beside me on my wedding day and I know they will make the year leading up to it as amazing as possible! Love love love you all!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

9/29/2012

Deposits are down and the date is set! JMC and I are getting married on September 29, 2012.

Our venue ended up being NONE of the ones that I had posted last time. Although we thought one of those places was going to be best, we realized that all of them were probably going to be too small to accommodate our large group. We had also almost given up on finding a church to have the ceremony in, but we found one and its perfect!

Our ceremony is going to be at Harrison United Methodist, right down the road from both JMC's and my parents' houses. Both of our families have attended services at this church for a while, since we are both Methodist and this is the closest one to where we live. I don't know why I hadn't thought about it earlier. Also, considering our love for history, Harrison UMC is the oldest United Methodist congregation in Mecklenburg County, having begun in 1785.


Our reception is going to be held at Carmel Country Club. After a long, hard day of looking at venues that disappointed all of us, my mom and Mrs. C suggested we just drop by to see if we can walk in and check it out ourselves. Right when we walked in the ballroom, I knew this was the place we should have it. Even after we just let ourselves in, the event director excitedly agreed to give us a full tour of the clubhouse! She was very helpful in giving us examples of what other couples had done and she emailed us almost immediately with menus and specs sheets. It was very refreshing after the day that we had.


This weekend, we are going to look at dresses! I have a style in mind, but I could very well walk into the bridal salon and fall in love with something completely different. You never know! Mrs. C made me appointments at Mecklenburg Bridal and J. Major's, so hopefully I will find something at one of those places! If I don't find something this weekend, we are thinking about looking at the Priscilla of Boston in Raleigh since they are going out of business. I'm just so excited!!

Special thanks to my mom, Mrs.C, SRC, and Mrs. R for being of great help already in the planning process. I am so lucky to have all of you!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Avett Brothers Greensboro

It has been one week since JMC and I got engaged. And let me tell you, this has been the best week ever. Not only are we starting to plan our wedding for a short year from now, JMC got a job offer for when he finishes his masters, we went to maybe one of the best Avett Brothers concerts I've ever been too (and I've seen them 9 times), AND I won my first fantasy football game (bringing my record to a stunning 1-4).

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I'm basically obsessed with the Avett Brothers.


I have been going to see them in concert since my senior year in high school and my obsession has only grown. If you have never heard of them, you should definitely look their music up. 

So the concert was in Greensboro and my parents drove my brother up for it and we met for dinner beforehand since they hadn't seen JMC or I since the engagement. We also met JMC's oldest brother & his wife, his second oldest brother, and a few of their friends since they were all coming to the concert as well. We met at a pub called M'Couls that was pretty awesome. They had a good beer list (which was a must for JMC and his oldest brother, JTC), and their food was great! Not to mention, it was right across the street from Natty Greene's Brewpub that JMC and JTC have been wanting to check out. We didn't get to go in, but I'm sure we will return soon for a brewery tour.

The concert was completely amazing. Although the seats weren't the best one's I've ever had to one of their shows, they literally had the best set list I have ever heard. They played both of the songs that JMC and I wanted, Murder in the City and Swept Away (Sentimental Version), as well as The Once and Future Carpenter (which happens to be my future last name).

This perfect week is only a foreshadowing of JMC's and my life together. I know that even through good times and bad, we will always have eachother and that's all that matters.

And now, I get to blog all about the planning process! I couldn't be more excited to have the best friends and family to help me, especially my mom, Mrs. C, and SRC (JMC's sister-in-law). They were all instrumental in getting the ring designed and made and will be my right-hand-women through the next year. First up, venues and setting an official date!