Friday Favorites: Well, You Know...

Believe it or not (probably not, I know), I have a ton of things happening in my life right now that are both 1. absolutely blog-worthy and 2. not wedding related. Gasp! Some of them are fantastic and exciting, some are not so much. Some of them are big, major, even life changing. And yet... none of them are going to be discussed today. Stay tuned: when the windstorm in my head dies down a bit, I'll have lots of big news.

But for now, just one more wedding post. Ahem... for now. After this, I promise I'll stop beating the poor horse for a while. I would be remiss, however, not to share some of these great ideas I've come across in my searches lately -- inspiring, genius, why-didn't-I-think-of-that ideas. Trust me: these you want to see.

Super cute idea for the reception:

Although we're going with something a bit different, we will also head home with cards and hopefully sweet notes from all of our guests.

Seriously clever RSVP card... kind of wish I had seen this before ordering ours!

Love the honesty, and it would be so funny to get all the replies!

Adorable way to make sure the bridal party/parents/vendors are all aware of the schedule:

And to go along with it, such a smart (and tempting) idea:

Not that I mind people calling me, but this really is a great way to make sure everyone has the contact info they need!

(Also, I love the line at the top: "Lost? Confused? Can't find your pants?" Ha!)

Absolutely genius (and I can use all the help I can get because I'm already dreading this...):

Love love love this sign -- putting it on my list to work on in September, when the planning crazies die down and I have a little DIY time:

And finally, a collection of cute picture ideas -- our poor photographer may be tempted to run the other way when he sees my list...

So cute:

Artistic:

Adorable twist on the typical family picture (might be even cuter if certain people were covering the eyes of their wives, kids, etc. -- also if someone front and center was quite obviously peeking!):

Individual wedding party shots for a collage -- definitely going to do this!:

And finally, something nice to remember:

That's right, hon. You're special!

Aaaaaand I'm done with the wedding overload. For now. Phew! Real life ahead... pinky promise.

Happy weekend everyone!

   Love,

    Meg

Worth a Thousand Words

I am in no shape to do anything important today... up to and including this attempt to assemble my thoughts into a coherent blog post. I am still floating somewhere in the general vicinity of cloud 9, buoyed by an incredible evening and reluctant to let my feet hit the ground again just yet.

Last night, nearly 27 months after Dan and I first got engaged, we were lucky enough to do a (slightly belated) "engagement" shoot with the local photographer I've been dying to work with for... approximately 27 months. I stumbled across his website even before Dan actually popped the question, and one look at his engagement gallery was all it took. His work is nothing short of breathtaking, down to the very last picture. He takes advantage of lighting and landscape to ensure that each shot is more than just a cute picture of two people, but a truly stunning photograph. His sessions are uniquely styled to reflect the couple's personality, each one different and yet absolutely perfect in their own way. I have been waiting (mostly) patiently for our turn for what seems like forever. With Dan out of town for military training and the huge rush to get things ready before the first wedding, there was no time to even think about an engagement shoot, but I was determined to get one in this time around, despite the fact that we are technically a bit past "engaged."

Even with such awesome expectations, last night blew me away. I started off the afternoon with the photographer's wife, who styles for most of his shoots, as she worked nothing short of magic on my hair and face. She was incredibly sweet and we had a great time chatting while she worked. I was absolutely thrilled with the final result, and snapped just a few pics:

(post makeup, pre curly hair)

(headed out to our venue with half of my hair pinned up to keep it curly)

We chose to do the shoot around the grounds at our wedding venue, which turned out to be the perfect spot for lots of variety and some spectacular views. We were able to take full advantage of the late afternoon light when we first got there, chased the sun as it set below the surrounding mountains, and then headed up to higher ground and were rewarded with an extraordinary sunset. The photographer was everything I hoped and more -- he was so laid-back and guided us perfectly without making anything feel posed or forced, welcoming our input and ideas as well. He snapped pictures as we walked, getting candid shots of us joking, laughing, and having so much fun. He really took the time to get to know us and had us relaxed and smiling the whole time without once having to think "smile for the camera." Honestly, it was the most fun few hours I have spent in a very long time, and even my picture-hating hubby seemed to love every minute.

last photo of the night, taken when we stopped for dinner after the shoot. still smiling!

I can't think of a better way to spend a Monday evening. I am still grinning just thinking about it, and know that I will be for weeks, anticipating the arrival of these pics. Can't wait to share them with you when they get here!

   Love,

    Meg

Showered in Love

Friday the 13th, indeed. I woke up from a dead sleep with a jolt, realizing suddenly that I was supposed to have made cookies for a coworker's baby shower today. Between getting home at 11 last night and working on a pre-wedding DIY project until 1:30, all with a splitting headache (which decided to stick around today, too), the cookies had literally not occurred to me until I sat straight up in bed at 5:45 this morning and said a word that may have made the cat blush. Thank goodness for my awesome hubby, who was guilted into willing to go to the store and pick up cake mix and applesauce at 6 am, while I managed a quick workout and then raced home to whip up a slightly undercooked batch of double chocolate cookies. One of which I ate for breakfast. Friday the 13th, indeed.

Today's overload of wedding pictures/Pinterest-happy collage comes with a slightly different theme: the bridal shower. My best friend and incredible soon-to-be-matron of honor:

is getting married at the end of this month, and I am throwing a shower for her and her lucky fiance tomorrow. I crafted the invitation by myself, and I'm pretty proud of it:

With less than 24 hours left until the party, I am still working on a few decorations and details, so I'm of course hitting up my favorite place for great ideas. Because we wanted to invite the guys to this one too, I've been trying to make sure that the decorations, etc. aren't too girly. I'm sticking to pretty simple and flexible details, since I haven't actually seen the venue and everything I do has to make the 3 hour trip up there. Here are a few things I may be working on this evening:

Such cute signs!

 

 favors!

love the DIY "poms"... just not sure I could pull off such a high degree of crafty

[via the pretty blog]

Sew cute (ha!). Not sure if I have the time for these (and then there's that little problem of me not being good at sewing anything. ever.) but perhaps a little puffy paint? My high school days of designing shirts for spirit days are calling....

Needless to say, my weekend is shaping up to be a bit full. Hope that yours is happy!

Love,

 Meg

In Bloom

So apparently my plans to post tons of nuptial brilliance here during my week-of-wedding-crazy actually translates to... silence. It's not that I haven't gotten a ton of things done this week -- everything from (finally) contacting a florist to finding the perfect dress for our "engagement" pictures (which are only about a year and a half late). I've sent a gazillion emails and texts, the bridesmaid dresses are thisclose to being ordered, and this afternoon we will have a decision for the invitation if it kills me. I've even managed to squeeze in a few other things: planning for my best friends' wedding shower on Saturday, talking with the rental agent for a house that Dan and I have our eye on, and even little things like the 8 hours of real work I'm expected to do each day. The only thing I haven't found much time for? Sleep. Oh... and blogging. Oops.

The biggest thing I've been losing sleep over lately is the flowers. Our wedding colors are dark grey (technically pewter) and a gorgeous light green that is essentially impossible to pinpoint (sage? clover? leaf? basil? The only thing we know for sure is that it's somewhere in the plant kingdom.) These colors look fantastic on paper goods, dresses, and even cake... but there is a general lack of pretty grey and green flowers in this world. While options for green bouquets do exist...

... I think I'd rather just carry a stalk of broccoli. Or maybe a cactus.

Instead, I'm looking mostly at white flowers. Specifically white flowers with prominent green stems and large petals -- I am not a fan of little flowers and would much rather have a simple bouquet of 6 larger stems than bunches of little tiny petals. I also know that I want my bridesmaids and I to carry a very small variety, and possibly even just one kind of flower. I love the clean look of a small, structured bouquet and kind of cringe at the ones that look like a field of wildflowers gone wrong.

So I've spend a lot of time on Pinterest (duh) looking at orchids:

peonies:

daisies:

white daffodils:

and my favorites, calla lilies:

 

and tulips:

 

*Important Note: I am very much aware that many of these flowers are out of season in September. In an effort to keep from completely falling apart from stress, I have chosen to pointedly ignore this fact. I am instead channeling my energy into hoping that our florist does, in fact, work magic. And possibly has a good greenhouse up her sleeve.

 

I've also thought about possibly incorporating another color, just to give me a few more choices. Although I'm not such a fan of mixing white flowers and dark red flowers, I do like the idea of using flowers that are white and dark red:

... and I also just love these gold and red calla lilies:

 

 The most intriguing bouquet additive I've found, however, has to be these:

I couldn't find a great picture, but this one gives you an idea of what I just might be thinking for my "something blue":

Just what I needed: another decision to make.

   Love,

    Meg

Operation: Wedding Blitz

It's never a good sign when you reach lunchtime on Monday feeling like you've already lived a few days since waking up. When despite the moderate amount you accomplished over the weekend, you feel like the few days "off" left you simply more aware of all the things you have to do and infinitely more stressed. When the volume of yawns emanating from your cubicle is sure to be driving your coworkers crazy, and isn't doing much to help your stress headache, either. When it's not just the number of single things on your to-do list that is daunting (that number has officially hit the stratosphere beyond "daunting" and is now floating somewhere in "terrifying"), but the number of categories said list includes. When you have already determined, this early in the day, that the possibility of a milkshake this evening may be the one and only thing that will get you through until bedtime with a smile...

In a crazy determined attempt to meet all of this stress head-on, I have declared this week a wedding blitz. I am pledging that by the end of the week, that damn list will be significantly shorter, my head will be a little less panicky, and I will be a much nicer person to live with (because the whole point of this crazy process is to still have a husband willing to re-marry me at the end). I am going to send the emails I've been putting off, make the decisions I've been struggling with, and fork over a whole lot more money to some of our amazing vendors. I am going to scour Pinterest and Etsy, create color-coded Google docs and calendars, and obsess over budgeting. I am going to continue to owe my sanity to bridesmaids M and N for all of their help and support. I am going to embrace the phrase "you can sleep when you're dead," and by the end of the week, I am probably going to be counting coffee as its own food group. I am going to get. things. done.

Throughout the week, I'll be posting wedding-type things around here: centerpieces and bouquets, engagement picture inspiration, invitations and programs and paper goods galore, and possibly even a chronicle of my search for the perfect green shoes for my lovely bridesmaids. Posts are likely to be short and sweet and full of pictures. If you're not into that kind of stuff, I apologize and hope you'll come back next week: by then, I'll either have the entire thing planned down to the tiniest details, or I will be face-down in a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Either should be interesting...

   Love,

    Meg

Quick and Easy Ways to Ruin a Thursday

Just in case you need a tutorial:

1. Schedule a holiday for Wednesday. Preferably one that involves sleeping late, lounging by the pool, enjoying excellent food with wonderful friends, cornhole, beer, a fire pit, and reluctantly driving home entirely too late at night.

2. Upon arriving home quite late on Wednesday night, forget the laundry started earlier in the day. Allow most of the clothes you own to wrinkle overnight.

3. Feel proud that you do remember to prepare breakfast for the next morning, knowing in advance that being alert at 6 AM is likely to be difficult, and will prove nearly impossible without coffee and oatmeal. Forget, however, that one key ingredient for said breakfast was a casualty of the Great Power Outage of 2012 (if I call it that, it means that there can't be another one this year, right?). Resign oneself to bland oatmeal.

4. Upon finally emerging from bed after hitting the snooze alarm one too many times, watch sadly as the cat repositions himself, curling up in your still-warm spot, yawning, and proceeds to lay his head directly on your pillow. Try not to curse the cat.

5. Once at the gym, step onto the elliptical for the billionth time this week. Select the same program as always (to give myself some credit, it is the hardest hill profile the damn thing offers). Look over at the treadmill mournfully, causing right leg to twinge with pain at even the thought of running. Try not to curse the leg.

6. Return from workout to find husband still happily asleep. Know that he is likely to remain in this state for another hour or two. Wish like heck that some days, you didn't have to be at work until 2 in the afternoon, either. Laugh because you know that means you'd have to work until 10 at night, and you are often asleep on the couch by 9.

7. Drive to work in sad old car with no air conditioning. Sweat through shirt for first time today in temperatures already steamy enough to prompt a heat advisory. Resolve to look again for a good deal on a new car that doesn't feel like a traveling inferno. 

8. Buy gas on the way to work. Ponder (for the gazillionth time) requiring that a new car run solely on electricity. Or water. Or love.

9. Arrive at work to a completely empty parking lot. Wonder if you're somehow early and have simply beaten everyone here. Realize that you are, in fact, a few minutes late, but that four out of every five employees have taken the next two days off.

10. Sit down at desk to write a to-do list. Complete one page and continue on to a second... and then a third. Fight the urge to crawl under the desk and hide from life and its responsibilities.

11. Dream of the weekend. Realize that the weekend is jam-packed with overcommitment, too. Realize that the rest of the month is similar. Realize that the rest of the summer, in fact, is going to be crazy. Realize that it actually extends past summer, through the much-anticipated September 28th. Dream of the honeymoon. Consider giving up a room with an ocean view for extra pillows on the bed.

Note: Can't say that I recommend following any of these procedures. Except maybe the first one... that was definitely worth it. 
Hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!

   Love,

    Meg

Questions... Served Warm

First, a disclaimer: I make no promises on the quality of today's thoughts. After several straight days of triple-digit temps and 60+ hours without electricity at home, my brain has turned to sludge and I am not at all far from throwing my hands up and crawling into the refrigerator to cry alongside all of our melting food. What I lack in mental capacity, however, I make up in curiosity today. Unfortunately, few of the questions plaguing me today come with answers...

Why did most of our neighborhood celebrate the return of their power on Saturday morning... except for our building? It has been torturous the past few evenings to drive past all the happily lit apartments on the way to our dark and increasingly sauna-like home. In an effort to get the most out of a tiny breeze last night, hubs and I slept on the floor in front of our back door. It may have been slightly cooler (even though we had to close the door during the night when yet another loud storm barreled through), but my muscles are certainly expressing their displeasure this morning. The only silver lining is that our clubhouse does have power, so I was able to enjoy a chilly shower there (which beats an icy shower at home) after working out this morning. 

How long until my ice cream melts? We evacuated most of our food to my mom's extra fridge and freezer on Saturday evening, but I left the ice cream behind as a safeguard in case my core temperature gets too high. Nothing cools you down like a pint of Phish Food froyo.

Why do my legs hate me? After a few blissful months of pain-free running, my right leg decided to hit the brakes on such fun. It has been killing me since early last week -- a different pain than the one I endured for most of the winter, but every bit as frustrating. I have been spending lots of time on the elliptical, which seems to be helping some, but I am so sad when I think of the miles I had planned to cover in the past week.

When am I ever going to pick bridesmaids dresses? I had a little mini panic attack about this one yesterday. I've known basically what I want for a long time, but the procrastinator in me has had a really tough time nailing it down. Now I'm having nightmares about rush order fees and dresses that don't arrive on time and bridesmaids that get fed up and bail. Luckily, this question is easy to answer: today. I swear, cross my heart and hope to still have six bridesmaids who love me at the end of this.

Is summer over yet? I have had quite enough of this heat. My wardrobe can't keep up with this many daily episodes of I'm-too-sweaty-to-keep-wearing-this-and-even-though-I've-only-had-it-on-for-ten-minutes-I-have-to-change-clothes-immediately.

What is the best movie you'll see this year? Thankfully, this very important question also has an easy answer:

Go see it. No really... now. It's ok, I'll wait.

How on earth do those people move so fast? Between the swimming and track trials, I spent most of last week trying to pick up my jaw off the floor and steady myself from the whiplash I endured tracking some of the speediest athletes on the planet. Those people are incredible.

And finally, a rather time-sensitive question that I am currently headed off to answer: what's for lunch?

Happy Monday, everyone!

   Love,

    Meg