Venue, invites, photographer... check!

This month has been quite a busy month for wedding stuff!

First, we finally booked the venue!  It is the production building of The Spokesman-Review... This is the only photo that I have been able to find online of the outside of the building.  I need to go back and take some outside photos.  

Sara brought her camera so we were able to take some photos of the inside, we just didn't take any photos of the outside... oops :)

So the venue is HUGE... there are two rooms, but then the second room will be broken up into two spaces.  The first room is where I think we will do cocktail hour and maybe live music (still haven't decided on if we are going to have a band) 

So from the first room you can actually see the paper presses, and we should be able to watch the Sunday paper be pressed during the wedding. 

This is the second room, that is almost as long as a city block!  There is bathrooms in the center to break up the space, we will do the ceremony on the far side, and reception in the space pictured below.  We need to decide if we are going to primer the walls or if we are going to hang fabric (I'm guessing paint, as fabric is crazy expensive... for the amount that we would need)

This is the back side of the space, where I think we will do the ceremony.  Nothing is set in stone at this point, so it could all change in the next year...  But that is how I am thinking it will be at the moment.   

Invitations are all picked out, just need to order them, then print them, and figure out how we are going to do RSVPs, I was able to figure out how to do an online rsvp, and know that there are quite a few people out there than will be able just rsvp online instead of needing to send something back.  But trying to figure out the best way to communicate this without the "etiquette police" being super upset.  Think sustainable :) less paper waste, less gas used...  

Last but not least *drum roll please*  my photographers have been booked!!!!!  I am using Heather and Jon from One Love Photo, they are by far the most amazing and artistic photographers I have ever seen!  I'll be honest, I was kinda star struck when I met Heather at the beginning of the month.  I kept having to say, "I swear I am totally not a stalker" because I have been following their blog for over a year now, and feel like I kinda know her, even though it was the first time that I had ever talked to her.  Sara and I drove to Seattle for the weekend just to meet with her face to face!  It was a super fun, very busy weekend, we picked out a brides maid dress for Sara, we visited with Kendra for like 30 minutes before she left to Vegas for the weekend, crashed at her place for the weekend (ya she is that amazing!)... had dinner then watched Marshall's cousins band play the last of 40 shows in one day, met up with Amanda for breakfast, drove to Tacoma to meet with Heather, 3 hours later, all my obsession with One Love Photo was even stronger.  I can't even begin to explain how honored I am that I get to have them shooting our wedding! 

... here are a few photos to see just how amazing they really are.  But really, go check out their blog, right now (right, well after you finish reading)! GO GO GO!!!!

So anyway, that is what is going on with wedding planning as of right now...  every month it seems like we get a little farther along in planning.  Next up catering, should be ordering christmas/save the date cards in the next couple of weeks.  We got all of our engagement photos back yesterday, I have been looking through the hundreds of amazing photos by Julie and Arah from Madeline James Photography.  Can't wait to get those ordered and sent off to everyone!  

Our Engagement Photos!!

We got back our engagement photos last night, and I am so excited for everyone to see them!  The ladies at Madeline James Photography did such an amazing job!  Marshall and I were last minute packing up our stuff for the shoot, he didn't really understand why I was having him pack so much stuff...  Then I had to rush to work to do my makeup.  Julie and Arah made us feel super comfortable and relaxed, so we were able to just enjoy this adventure and not be nervous.  Marshall and I had so much fun, now to make save the dates/christmas cards!

So there you have it, our amazing engagement photos.  Thanks so much Julie and Arah, we love them!

Engagement Photos!

Marshall and I got our engagement photos taken yesterday!  We worked with my friend Julie and her sister Arah, they are from Madeline James Photography, and well, they are amazing!  We had so much fun working with them, and today I was so excited to see a couple of photos already up when I opened my facebook after work!

The photos look amazing, we can't wait for the rest of the photos.

Thanks again so much Julie and Arah!

Started my dress!

So I finally have gotten started making my wedding dress!  Its so exciting, it makes me feel like I am actually getting married.  I'm not going to put photos up of it, because I don't want Marshall to see it... though I don't think he even looks at the blog, I would rather be safe than sorry!  And, I think it is nice for there to be some surprises for everyone.  Having a blog is nice, but I like to think of it more as a movie preview, you know show some good stuff but not all of it, so that people are excited and looking forward to the fun.  So, instead I will attach a few photos that were my inspirations in creating my dress.

I am having my dress made by a family friend Linda Graff, she owns, A Sewing Shoppe, it is located up on the south hill near lincoln heights.  She is making me two dresses for the night, and also working on a skirt that I would like to wear for our engagement photos.

 Right, so with the top half of the dress I brought back lace from Italy, and I am so excited about it!  It is going to be a cross of these two tops, imagine a wider neckline from the photo on top, but not as sexy as the photo on the right.  More like a cross of the two.  Sara has been coming with me to all of my fittings so far and taking a ton of photos, so after the wedding, I will put up a slideshow from all of my trips to Linda's shop.  It will be a fun reminder of all the hours of hard work that she put into making it.

It really is funny, my design idea has never changed from the first moment that I started looking for my dress.  At first Sara and I went to all the wedding dress shops in town, I went with my mom to a couple, then I went to Seattle and met up with Amanda, Kendra, and Janice to try on dresses there.  But still I didn't find a single thing that was even close to my dream dress.  So, back as square one I decided to have Linda make it.  I couldn't be happier with how it has all worked out!!!


The back of the dress is going to be open like this but, it will have buttons up the lace part, and no sash.  The sleeves will be a little bit smaller than that photo also, but I really like what we are doing with them, they are going to look so pretty!

The hardest part for me was figuring out how I was going to make the bottom half of the dress, and finding the right silk fabric for the rest of the dress, because I really didn't want super shiny fabric.  But, Linda searched high and low and found the perfect fabric, it is called milano silk, it is just exactly what I imagined!


So for the bottom half of the dress I found this photo, I really am not a fan of the mermaid style or trumpet style dress that is super popular right now in wedding designs.  When I saw this dress a while back I was just head over heals for it.  It gives just the right amount of curve to show off my backside without looking like I can't move from the knees up.

So anyway, that is my dress inspiration.  It is coming along quite fantastically at the moment, and I am dying to get it finished.  Linda is also making me a short dress for the reception, we are basing it off of a Sarah Seven dress that I really liked.  I am thinking that it is going to be a light peach color made with dotted tule.  I think we will make it a bit shorter than the photo, and I will have a sparkly crystal belt to wear with it... not quite sure yet how it is all going to work out, we shall see!  Then I am also having her make me a skirt for the engagement photos, if we can get the fabric in soon enough, if not I may have her make it for the Sunday brunch after the wedding.  We are going to do brunch at the Spokane club the day after the wedding, it is going to be so much fun that way it will give me another day hanging out with my family and friends who are still in town celebrating with us.  It is so much fun to figure out all of that stuff.  There is going to be family here that I haven't seen for years.  It is one of the best parts about getting married I think!

Next week, I will have photos up of the venue, that we finally booked after one whole year of looking for the perfect place!!!  To quote on of my favorite movies, Its all happening...

Lace Found!

While visiting Italy this week I had one goal in mind, find a fabric store and buy some lace for my dress.  After a few stops in some smaller fabric stores I had just about given up.  From my searching online I had the understanding that the best fabric stores were in Rome.  But sure enough I ended up finding the most amazing fabric store up in Florence.

So as we were about to run to the train to head back to our condo, but my sister said she saw a bigger fabric shop, and she had looked in it already.  The shop has been open since 1929, the shop was opened up by Romoli Egisto, and it is now run by his two sons, it is called Casa Dei Tessuti in Firenze (Florence) Italy.  They sell fabric to some to the worlds top designers such as Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Yeves Saint Laurent, and Giani Versace to name a few!

I just feel so blessed to have gotten the chance to meet them, they were so kind, took a ton of photos with me and my family and made sure that I sent them a photo of my wedding dress when it is all done.  They were the kindest people we met on our whole trip to Europe!  They were amazing!

                                      

I'm going to meet with the lady who is making my dress on Wednesday, and I can't wait to show here my lace.  It is hand made velvet lace, no acid wash lace for this girl, haha!  Getting the lace made me feel like this whole wedding this is really happening.  It was my first purchase for the wedding, its all so very exciting! 

Wedding planning standstill...

For the last month I haven't done much planning.  Until we book the venue there isn't much else I can do, because I can't really do anything else until I know for sure that we are going to do the wedding in Sandpoint.  My family wasn't all that excited about Sandpoint, because it is an hour and a half from Spokane.  So I have kinda put planning on the back burner for a bit.  It isn't fun planning a wedding when everyone isn't on board with you, so I decided to take a break.

I went to visit my brother in New York, and am going to Europe to visit my sister next week.  Then I am going to have to get back on track, because time just keeps ticking by faster and faster!

Venue Found!!!

Really great news... Sara and I went out to check out Camp Mivoden today. The sad news is that we can't serve any alcohol there. After checking it out, I was sad to admit that though it is a great place, and Marshall and I don't drink all that much so I didn't see a huge deal about not being able to serve booze, it still felt a little weird to not be able to even do a champagne toast!

So Sara and I figured that we were already all the way out in Hayden, why not check out this new venue in Sandpoint. The thing is, if I was willing to look all the way out in Hayden whats another 15 minutes of driving? Thank god we decided to go check out this place because... Its Amazing!!!! There aren't any catering rules (full catering kitchen), we can bring in our own alcohol, there is two rooms... so we can have the ceremony in the theater, and have the reception in the old gym! They even have this smaller hallway room that we can use to have a cocktail hour. It is perfect!

So this first picture it of the theater where the ceremony will be, the photo does it no justice, there the amazing gold trim, and the stage is lovely, the people who have remodeled the whole building even have done all the woodwork on their own I can't begin to explain how beautiful this place is!

This next photo is of the old gym which is now the reception hall. Yep, amazing!!! And lots of space to dance around, eat food and be merry!

The view of the outside of the old Sandpoint high school that is now the lovely Sandpoint Events Center, so happy to have found a venue that fits all of the things that I wanted. Its like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Fantastic!

So random thought, Marshall loves cheese... Thinking of instead of doing a grooms cake that we would do a cheese table with lots of different types of cheese, some apples and pears. People that don't like dessert can eat cheese and fruit.

Still searching for a venue...

Since my last blog I have ruled out the Lincoln Center, because they also now require you to use the Glover mansion Catering Company... LAME! ... and they wanted $4,700 to rent the whole building!!! I don't get why so many venues use Glover, they have the worst customer service, and awful food! Anyway... in the long search for a venue the amazing Sara came across Camp Mivoden in Hayden Lake. It has dorms, both indoor and outdoor places for the ceremony depending on the weather, I actually really love the indoor auditorium. They are reasonably priced, and then all the out of town people would have a place to stay, it is $58-78 a night there and that includes 3 meals and full use of the camp. They even have an indoor pool and hot tub.

I think it would be really fun to get there a day early and do the rehearsal dinner there, just a really huge bbq with anyone who shows up a day early instead of doing a formal dinner that night. That way we will be able to hang out with all of our out of town guests who get in early a little bit more than just at the wedding. Then maybe have brunch Sunday morning for the people who stay Saturday night.

This is a image of a wedding in the auditorium.

I haven't been able to find any invites that really jump out at me at this point, but here are a couple that I have bookmarked. I like the idea of having a formal invite, because if we end up at the camp the rest of the weekend won't be very formal, but I would really like to have everyone dressed up at the wedding at least. Having a formal invite really seems to set the stage, and give the people an idea of how to dress for the wedding.

I have been pretty sure since we first got engaged that I just wanted the bridesmaids to just pick out a purple dress, any color, any cut not matching just purple. But the girls haven't really seen anything that they love, and so I have been on the hunt for something that I like. Today when Sara and I went to the bridal fair and during the runway show a girl was wearing a dress like these dresses made by twobirds in NYC. They have lots of different colors, so the girls could all have different color dresses.

I never really thought I would ever want to do the whole awkward guarder removal deal... and I still don't think I will be down, but I would really, really love to rock one of these lovely guarders! So pretty!
I am still in the planning a wedding isn't fun at all stage. I think I would be just as happy getting eloped. But, I really want to have my family with me, and when Marshall and I both add up our families its a lot, and I would hate to leave any of them out! That and we have way too many friends :)