Wedding Dresses!

Yesterday, I tried on wedding dresses for the first time EVER! I went with my mom, my Matron of Honor. I tried on soooo many beautiful dresses. I walked in thinking I was going to be a Maggie Sottero bride, and the ones we LOVED on were Mori Lee! I didn't love the Maggie dresses on as much as I thought I would. I tried on the Ambrosia and Sabelle. They are both beautiful gowns, just not "the one" for me. I'm still going to a few more places just to make just the ONE I have been stuck on is really "THE ONE"!! lol

Ambrosia

Back of Ambrosia

Sabelle

The beautiful side detailing

Still Sabelle

More Lee Dress

Mori Lee 1

Back of Mori Lee Dress 1

Beautiful detailing on Mori Lee Dress 1

Mori Lee 2, side view to see fullness of skirt

Mori Lee 2, front

semi full length view on Mori Lee 2

The detailing on every ruffle really makes this dress SPARKLE!

[kind of hard to tell in pics]

More Lee Dress 2

Another front shot, Mori Lee Dress 2

The beautiful detailing on Mori Lee Dress 2. kinda blurry :/

Detailing goes all they way down the back

The back of Mori Lee Dress 2

Our Planning So Far..

Well its been a while since I posted a blog on how the planning is going!

So.. the new date has been set for October 12, 2013! We have the church booked, reception hall booked, and photographer booked [yep i decided on one - finally! lol]. Check out my photographer, he does AMAZING work, and we get a free photo booth for the reception! We couldn't be happier with our choice! Andrew Robert Photography

I already purchased the earrings I am going to wear on the "big day". They were $500, on sale for $100! Soo I couldn't pass it up, even tho I feel extremely guilty for spending that much, but its ok - its for my long awaited wedding right?! Plus my ears get really itchy and irritated with fake earrings - within seconds! I was also with my mom and cousin who were urging me to buy them, lol!
I also bought a personalized hanger for my dress on Etsy for $4.99!! What a steal! You can get one here: Wedding Hanger
My FFIL ordered our Save the Date magnets, and they arrived today, along with our kissing bell place cards!! Sooo happy, and excited.. wow things just started to GET REAL. I can't help but feel really scared at the same time. I fear that once again it will get all messed up and our day will be cancelled yet again. :(

I have met with several dj's, and would love to book with one already!! Since I don;'t want them to be all booked up for my date, by the time I get around to it, but... one of the DJ's we met with is doing a contest to win a $7,000 wedding package! It would include their best DJ and videographer package with lighting, monogram, DVDs/blurays, etc... It would be SO AMAZING to win it!! We really need it soo bad, and it would def save us a lot of money! So all the help we can get would be greatly appreciated.
Please help us win! All you have to do is "Like":
 This Page

and then like mine and my fiances picture here:
Our Picture

BOTH the page and photo need to be liked for the vote to count.

please no comments on picture

Contest ends on 3/17/13
Thanks so much!!!

I am going this Saturday to find my dress, and couldn't be MORE EXCITED!!! My bridesmaids have an appointment of February 17th to get their dresses, also looking forward to that! :)
Still lots left to do, and only 262 days to do it ;) That's enough time right? haha

We still need to get:
Grooms and groomsmen appts to get the tuxs
Appt. with Florists
Appt. with Bakery's
Flower girl dress for Lina
Flower girl basket and ring bearer pillow
Invites/reception cards/rsvp cards printed [ a awesome friend is designing them for me ]
Bridal necklace
Veil
Bridal Shoes
Bridesmaids gifts/ Groomsmen gifts

I'm sure I'm missing a ton, but that's all my brain can comprehend right now lol.
Thanks for reading!
~Ashley

Hall is booked, yet again ;)

Well I posted before about losing our hall after having to postpone our event, and losing our deposit. Well I called the hall the other day and talked to someone and they said the manager would call me back. He called back and said the new date we chose is open and our deposit will transfer!! What a relief, and sooo happy that we chose the right banquet hall for our reception, and it shows in their compassion and awesome customer service. Extremely happy right now!!!

Centerpieces and Wedding Colors

Well I thought photographers were stressful, now I'm stressing over centerpieces lol. Mainly because I love the Manzanita branches with the crystals dangling off them, but its going to be a little costly. I want to spray them silver with glitter, and put them in a squared vase with gel beads to fill it with a FloraLytes to light it up. It would look gorgeous. I would just have to figure how a way to make this more cost affective. The other option I used to be SET on was - using medium cylinder vases and dressing them up with ribbon, filled with the gel beads and FloraLytes and doing a carnation pomander on the top. I found bulk carnations that are decently priced through Sams Club which would be cheaper than going through a florists, but I'm still going to be pushing it with the cost I think. They are around $65 for 150 carnations, and it takes about 50 carnations to make a pomander. Right now we are still working on our guest list, so I'm not sure how many pomanders I am going to need. I'm guessing around 20-25.
Gosh everything I have envisioned when I was wedding planning last year, has changed and now it has got me rethinking everything. From my centerpieces to the colors!!! What is wrong with me?! lol. I KNOW I still want to use pink. Just not sure if I'm going to use hot pink/fuchsia or light/blush pink! It we do the hot pink/fuchsia we will use black and damask to accent [just like this layout was initially designed after]. If we go with the light/blush pink we will use ivory and silver to accent. Why am I doing this to myself??!!? I hate this second guessing, and confusion lol. Here are a few of my design inspirations, that have me totally confused on which centerpieces and colors I am going to choose!! lol

                                            Linens will be just like this if we choose this option

                                           This is one centerpiece option for the pink/damask

                                                   This is the blush pink/ ivory theme:

                                      This is kinda the idea I had to use the gel beads and FloraLytes

This is how the linens will be if we use the light pink

                                               This is the manazanita branches centerpieces.
                                                    No idea what I am going to do!! lol

Photographers again...

O..M..GGGGG. Now I remember all the stress I was going through when I was researching wedding photographers last year. Its all coming back to me now lol. I am just SOOO PICKY when it comes to photographers. I want to pick the RIGHT ONE, I don't want any regrets on how our photos turn out! These pictures are the memories of your special day that you will have forever to look back on. There are so many photographers that use their big fancy camera and charge insane prices when they don't even know how to use the camera or edit properly. Sure the pictures may look "good" especially to someone who doesn't know much about photography, but I LOVE pictures and want to get into photography someday..so thats probably where my pickiness comes in. That being said, every photographer I fell in love with it ridiculously expensive lol. I hate my expensive taste sometimes!! lol! Who wants to help pay for my wedding? Anyone?? lol. I'm afraid I'll be stuck with some average photographer and get so-so pictures because I can't afford the ones I want :((((( Seriously I am so worried about this lol. No joke. lol this is horrible. Hopefully I will find THE ONE [haha] or one of these amazing photogs will work with me on price :)

This picture pretty much sums it all up for me! lol

Dresses! Dresses! DRESSES!!!!

So I have been browsing wedding dresses online like CRAZY!! I think I am addicted, lol. I seriously cannot wait to go wedding dress shopping and try on all the beautiful dresses! I found one online that I am absolutely IN LOVE with. I can't wait to try it on, and see if it still has the same WOW factor as it does online. Here are a few I saved that I liked, but I didn't include the one I'm crazy about ;)

                                                                 Demetrios 4825

                                                                      Allure Bridal 8911

                                                        Ambrosia by Maggie Sottero
                                           [this would have to be a close 2nd to my top #1 dress]

                                                              Moonlight Couture H1196

                                                            Jenna by Maggie Sottero

                                                             Montana by Maggie Sottero

                                                           Monterey by Maggie Sottero

Back in Wedding Planning MODE!!!!

 Well Eric and I recently discuss getting the wedding plans back on track, and we have chosen a date! We will announce it after we get the date set with the church and the banquet hall again. Speaking of the hall, I have to call and see if they held our deposit for us. I called after we had to put the planning on hold, and they said they would hold our deposit for us... so I'm hoping they do/did!  But the wedding is going to be in the fall of next year!! So exciting!!! Before we were planning a wedding in just 9 months, now we have well over a year to plan. So I'm getting started early! Hopefully it will be A LOT less stressful this way too! lol. This past Saturday, my Aunt came over for my Birthday and surprised me with a wine/food/pastries tasting wedding planning party!!! She bought me EVERY SINGLE Bridal/Wedding magazine that is out there! lol. She knew I was starting to get back into planning, so this was awesome! We drank, ate, and went through all the mags! haha. It was so much fun, and a wonderful surprise especially since I had two of my bridesmaids over to share in all the fun with me. I received four free bridal show expo tickets for November. My mom, my Aunt, and my Matron of Honor were all going to go, but one of my very best friends/bridesmaid is having her baby shower that day - and I would NOT miss it for the world! I am SO excited for her!! <3 I will just pick a different Bridal Expo to attend, but I am having so much planning! Well thanks for reading this update, if anyone actually did lol. I don't think I'm going to be linking these to my Facebook, so if you are reading this glad you found me.. somehow? lol