We're MARRIED!!!! And I couldn't have planned it without PW :)

Keep up with my adventures over at Jesstagirl and Her Officer

But in the mean time,

Here's the journey of a twenty-something writer who planned a wedding with her long-distance airman (The Air Force currently has him living 1,500 miles away).

p.s. If I've used one of your photos for inspiration purposes, please let me know and I'll give you credit!

P.P.S - some of my pages are "hidden" so friend me so you can see them!

Our photographer was unbelievably awesome and sent us these teasers THE DAY AFTER THE WEDDING! She knew we were going on our honeymoon and then moving after, so she wanted to give us some pictures in the mean time. We should be getting another round of sneak peaks in a week or so, and then the rest in a couple months. I'm soooooo in love. The day was beyond perfect!

All photos taken by Kim Jackson Photography

How We Met: Ringin' in the New Year(s)

It was a few minutes past midnight when we first laid eyes on each other. Because of mutual friends, we both ended up going to the same New Year's Eve party, and after the clock struck twelve we started talking and ignored everything else going on. But before we knew it, the party was dwindling down. On January first we parted ways, and even though we tried to reconnect throughout 2006, it never worked out (i.e. he wasn't on Facebook yet!).

12.26.06
Skip ahead almost a year when a friend of mine's was getting married a few days later and decided to have her bachelorette party in downtown Albuquerque during a freak blizzard. We all packed up the mini van and headed downtown. At one of the last stops, Maloney's Tavern, I saw Kenny. He was in town again and was out on the town with some friends. After talking and catching up for awhile they realized they were both planning on attending the New Years party a few days later.

01.01.07
When the clock struck midnight we both celebrated the new year, but this time we shared our last first kiss (wow! How cheesy is that?!). A few months later—thanks to Facebook, cell phones, and the Internet—we became an item.

Getting to know the bride and groom...

Jessica (the bride)

Growing up, I was always the token “hopeless romantic” among my friends. Whenever the latest romantic comedy was released I was there—tissue in hand—to watch the love story unfold. While my friends were meeting significant others, I was there observing the do’s and don’ts of dating, and even though my days of dating never resembled those in the movies, I now has close friendships instead of multiple broken hearts.

In elementary school I made a list of traits I wanted her boyfriend to have—and all the characteristics were so demanding I ended up putting it away several months after I realized—at such a young age—finding the “perfect” guy was practically unattainable. After getting to know Kenny, however, it turned out I was finally able to cross off every quality on that list.

From the (second) time I met Kenny I've been constantly attached to my cell phone (her text message counts go through the roof!), I've brushed up on my letter-writing skills, and I've flown across the country countless times to spend as much time as possible with her love. Living the life of a military girlfriend has not been easy, but it’s certainly been worth it.

Kenny (the groom)

When Kenny was younger he had a favorite red suit and a matching red bow tie that he’d wear as often as possible; his fiancé thinks he used to wear it around to charm the ladies even when he was just a little tyke. A geek to the core, Kenny went to college to pursue a degree that would allow him to play on computers all day, but while he was there aeronautics piqued his interested and soon he found himself signing up for the United States Air Force.

Before long, Kenny got commissioned and moved to Panama City, Florida, to complete training for his new job as an Air Battle Manager. Juggling his free time between work and a life outside was demanding, but he managed to see Jessica as often as possible. He’s now in Warner Robins, Georgia, where he recently bought a house. His plan of luring Jessica to move in with him was working, especially when he started filling his home with furniture the two handpicked out. His grand scheme worked when he asked the girl of his dreams to marry him. She said yes and will move in promptly after they tie the knot.

Take a peak at our wedding party:

The ladies...

Laura (Maid of Honor):                             

Natalie (Bridesmaid): 

       

Emily (Bridesmaid):

...and the gents...

As soon as the groom gets is bride-to-be info (i.e. pictures!) about his groomsmen, the bride will update this section. (Hint! Hint!)

Photo Shoot

These pics were all taken by the lovely Kim Jackson Photography! We had a blast taking them. If you're interested in seeing more, send me a message and I can give you the link.

All photos by Kim Jackson Photography.

I tried to break my to-do list up into categories, but I don't know if it's the most organized way. If anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, or things I left of please let me know!!

The Look:

• Dress DONE! (Brides by Demetrios)
• Engagement Ring: DONE! (Blue Nile)
• Veil:
• Garter:
• Ceremony shoes: DONE!
• Reception shoes: DONE!
  
• Bride Accessories (earrings, necklace, etc.)
• Bridesmaid dresses:Done! (Brides by Demetrios, Eden style 7211)
  
• Flower girls dresses:
• Groomsmen suits/tuxes:
• Rehearsal dinner dress:
• Something old
• Something new Dress
  
• Something borrowed
• Something blue My Nana's Broach
  
• Talk to custom jeweler about creating my band: Butterfield Jewelers
  
• My wedding band:
• His wedding band:
• Find MUA:
• Find Hairstylist:
• Makeup trial:
• Hair trial:

Pre-Wedding:

• Wedding website DONE! ( www.mywedding.com/ASKME!)
• DJ: DONE! (my brother! Tuffersound.com)
• Photographer: DONE! Kim Jackson Photography (www.kimjacksonphotography.com)
• Pre-wedding photographer:DONE! Don James (www.donjamesphotography.com)
• Videographer DONE!(my cousin! www.kikoproductions.com)
• Engagement pictures DONE!(ask for link)
• Wedding Planner: DONE! Karen with Celebrations! Style
• Get e-ring insured
• Check with fire marshal to have candles at reception
• Guest list
• Order STDs DONE! (vistaprint.com 100 postcards and envelops, $38.98)
  
• Buy Magnets for STDs DONE (OfficeMax, $15 for 75 business-card sized magnets)
  
• Send out STDs September 1
• Order Pocketfolds (Paper and more, $120 for 150 Bronze)
• order envelopes (Cards and pockets $21 + $8 for shipping for 125 cotton candy envelopes)
• Get Paper for invites: (XPedex,
• DIY Invitations
• Send out Invites
• Registries
• Block rooms at hotel DONE! Two hotels have room blocks
  
• DIY Programs
• DIY Guestbook
• Have our Tasting
• Find a florist (Savon Flowers)
  
• Decide on Honeymoon
• Rehearsal dinner location
• Book Honeymoon
• Pickup Marriage License
• Gifts for BM and parents
• Family must-take photo list

Ceremony:

• Ceremony location: DONE! (Hotel Albuquerque in chapel)
• Ceremony music:
• Pick “readings”:
• Find faux petals:
• DIY Pomanders for aisles:
• DIY flower girl baskets
• DIY Table Runners

Reception:

• Reception location: DONE! (Hotel Albuquerque in the Franciscan)
• Music
  • First Dance:
  • Father/Daughter:
  • Mother/Son:
  • Bouquet Toss:
  • Garter Toss:
  • Cake Cutting:Sugar Sugar, Pour Some Sugar on Me, How Sweet it is (to be loved by you), Build Me Up Buttercup

• Get coffee beans for centerpieces:
• Get square vases for centerpieces (Savon Flower providing)
  
• Cake: Cupcakeology.com
  
• Groom’s Cake:
• Cupcakes: Cupcakeology.com
• Photobooth? Kim Jackson Photogrpahy
  

GET MARRIED!!!

Finding an actual location to get married was one of the bigger challenges we faced. I grew up Catholic, but converted to Christianity several years ago, but I don't belong to a church. My fiance is not affiliated with any religion or church. He honestly hasn't been vocal about things he wants with the wedding except that he would rather not get married in a church - his whole family is not religious, but my side of the family is VERY religious - so I found a compromise!

I'm in love with the fact that this chapel looks like a church, feels like a church, but isn't a church; it's exactly where I pictured I'd get married some day!

The Chapel at Hotel Albuquerque:

from the outside:

the bridal suite where I'll get ready (where they took this picture is a GIGANTIC mirror!:

    and the chapel (I'm REALLY not a fan of the bows; I'd rather have flowers, I think):

The above photos courtesy of Hotel Albuquerque

A view from the balcony looking down:             We can take pictures at the top, too!

   source for the above two

Colors 'n Such: Chocolate and Pink

I don't know why this board is so small, but I can't - for the life of me - figure out how to make it bigger! These are some of my favorite inspiration pictures all rolled into one.

Dun...Dun...Dun...

Chocolate/espresso and Pink will be the inspiration for our wedding.

I finally decided on this scheme because I'm in love with this concept for our centerpieces:

I love the rich, dark espresso/coffee beans paried with light pink, fluffy flowers. My brother's friend works at Starbucks and he's generously putting aside his free bag of coffee each week for us to use!

Yummy, yummy in our tummy

I love the look of having a tradtional cake, but I'm completely drawn to cupcakes! I have a few ideas of how to pull it off, so I'll have to see what the baker thinks a few months down the road. These are some patterns/designs I like, but picture everything in a chocolate and light pink if it's not already!

The cake was originally going to look like the one above, but I recently just changed it and now it will be a two tiered like the one below.

We are also having cupcakes...13 dozen of them to be exact! They're coming from Cupcakeology and will taste divine! These are the flavors:

Cheesecake Vanilla cake topped with cheesecake frosting, seasonal berries  & graham cracker crumbs.

Hazelnut Happiness Chocolate cake cake topped with Nutella buttercream & toasted hazelnuts.

Mint Chocolate Dark chocolate cake topped with mint buttercream & an Andes mint.

Red Velvet Classic red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting.

Cake Topper

I am in LOVE with this cake topper, but my parents aren't too crazy about it. We'll see if I can find something similar in the mean time!

ACTUAL! My fiance gave me this topper for Christmas. It's not exactly like the one above, it's a tamer version, but I love it!

Here are some flowers I'm particularly drawn to:

Sources (from top left to bottom right): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Clearly I like big poofy, fluffy, florals; with no green, please!

source: Mrs. Lovebug on Weddingbee

So here's the thing about me and flowers. I know diamonds are supposed to be a girl's best friend and if anything were to be a runner up it'd probably be roses. But I've just never been a fan of them. Of course, you would never hear my complain if I were to receive them from a special someone *cough* hint hint *cough*, but simply put, roses aren't my cup of tea.

My favorite flower has always been the Stargazer Lilly. I love their fragrant scent and their beautiful coloring, but the thought of smelling them on the day of my wedding gave me a headache just thinking about it. Plus, they start wilting very, very quickly, and I don't want to have dying flowers on my wedding day. It would kinda bring the mood down a bit, don't ya think?

source

(The flowers in the martini glass was a gift from Kenny on my birthday.)

At one point I was even considering Gerbera Daisies. I liked how bright and happy they were, and a huge selling point is that they'd be available in the winter.

project wedding

But something wasn't right. While I think they're a gorgeous flower, they just didn't have that soft, romantic vibe that I was longing to achieve. And they almost seemed to be a flower fit for a spring wedding.

And then I found them—or something similar, at least.

I first found this photo and loved it. So lush, so romantic, so...perfect. The problem is that the flowers are peonies, and not only are they not available in February, but they cost a very pretty penny.

source

And then—after more wedding-blog stalking online—I saw an article about wedding flowers on the cheap and this was the photo accompanying the article:

Real Simple

Let's look at them side by side, shall we?

You can hardly even tell that the bouquet on the left is made out of carnations, but yet it looks so much like the one on the right; except that it cost several hundred dollars less, of course.

source

We recently signed with our florist, Savon Cash and Carry Flowers (the one on Candelaria if you're familiar with the area), and I'm really excited about how they took my vision and ran with it.


I saw them at a bridal show, along with several other florists in town, and loved their display. All of the flowers they showcased had the modern/classic vibe that I liked. We didn't even meet with any another florist.


I know carnations have a bad reputation for being the "cheap" flower, but I think if cheap can look lush and has the right vibe, then cheap can absolutely be chic.





What do you think, are carnations cheap or chic? And what flowers will you/did you have for your wedding?

I have to admit that the following flower idea is the base for my whole color scheme: 

I just fell in love with the idea of dark espresso-covered coffee beans and light pink flowers fluffing out around it. I also like the contemporary look, so I'd like them to be in square vases. Then I want to tie the whole thing together with a few candles to soften up the whole look and make it romantic. Here are my inspiration pics, so hopefully I can try to make my vision happen!

Since real flower centerpieces cost way more than I want to pay, I thought it'd be a good idea to try to make my own. Yup. I'm going to attempt to Do. It. Myself. Here's my first attempt (all with products from the Dollar Tree):

I got a square vase from ($1), two bunches white carnations (1 dozen, $2), and two bunches of light pink roses (1 dozen, $2 - but I only used six of them, so really it was $1 for that). So. The grand total for this centerpiece? Four bucks. When/if I do this for real I'll probably get some flowers from Hobby Lobby, because I don't really want white flowers. BUT, what do you think of the carnations? I think it gives it that soft, poofy look I like! The vase is also a little small, I think, so I'd need to see what it looks like on table set for ten people.
Just squint real hard and maybe you'll see coffee beans in the vase, and all light pink flowers. So what do you think? Seriously, honest opinions!

My girls are very adament about not wanting to wear pink. I know, I know, it's my wedding and since I'm the bride they should do what I want. Well, I know how they are and pink would not suit their personality, so whatever we find for them will be in a dark chocolate brown. Here are some we're thinking about (any dresses that have a two-toned look may be either all brown or brown and light pink):

source                                 source                                         source

                source                                   & nbsp;                      source

And here's the dress we're actually going with! It's actually going to be in a deep brown, but all the girls said they LOVE it and actually want to wear it again! 

Here is Eden style 7250:

Boy, oh boy, have I had my stress levels rise when thinking about how to dress the guys. Here's my dilemma: My FI is in the Air Force will be wearing his mess dress that looks something like this:

It may not look like it from the picture, but Mess Dress is a deep midnight blue. And blue doesn't really go with my brown and pink color scheme. I think, though, that I'm going to have the groomsmen wear brown tuxes instead of black, especially since the girls will also be wearing brown. I think if I added black into the mix it'd just look like I had a big bruise up there during our pictures. what do you think? Here's my inspiration for the other guys:

source

LOVE it! Now I just need to figure out if they'll be wearing brown ties or if I should throw some pink ties in there.

UPDATE: Everyone's nixed the brown tux idea, so we're going with black tuxes and brown vest/ties that'll look something like this:

As you can see from the entry above, I had my ring custom-made, and this was the result...I LOVE it!

These were created by my awesome MOH and I just love them! We're still figuring out how we want to mail them, but at least we have the design!

(and if you think you've seen something similar, it's becuase I completely and stole the concept from Mrs. Pineapple over at Weddingbee!)

I tried to enlarge it a bit, but now it's a bit fuzzy - sorry!

• Stand up straight!  I am slouching in so many of my pictures - don't let that happen to you!!!

• The bouquet is going to be BIG and HEAVY!  My coordinator gave me some very helpful advice - hold the bouquet so that your arms kind of rest on your hips.  That way, your arms don't get as tired, and the bouquet won't block the pretty top of your dress during pics!

• Bring a snack to the ceremony!  At the last minute as we were leaving for the ceremony site, I grabbed a box of Triscuits - saved me and my bridesmaids from starvation during pre-ceremony and post-ceremony photos!

****If I have your photo (or you know who owns certain pictures below) PLEASE let me know so I can give you credit. I started pulling photos I liked to my desktop long before I realized I should credit people!*****

With the wedding seven months away, buying shoes was furtherdown on my list. But when I was out helping my mom find shoes to wear with her dress for my brother's wedding I found my ceremony shoes! And the best part is that they were on sale for $17!!!

I've tried searching for these online and they're practically nowhere to be found, but they're Mootsies Tootsies "Korine" - take a look:

And then, after we were at the shoe store where I bought these, my mom and I went to Target just to pick up a few things. That's where I found these reception shoes:

The mister LOVES Chucks and thanks to Target now carrying Converse, I was able to get myself a pair! I can't wait to dance the night away in these.

I'm hoping to wear this for New Years Eve and/or our rehearsal dinner. The description says that I'll, "Look picture perfect on that special day with this lace party dress. Strapless. Pleated bodice. Padded interior shelf bra. Satin-trimmed waist. Rosette accent. Zips at back. Falls above knee. Fully-lined. Tulle-lined hem."

Lace Strapless Partydress With Rosettes by Appropriate Behavior

I know the above pic is tiny, so I used my mad computer skills (aka I took screen shots of the enlarged view) and pieced together what it looks like close up:

It should be arriving at my Georgia home the same day I pull up on our moving truck, which is six days away, by the way! :)

So what do you think of my new party dress?

I quickly unwrapped the foam protection and revealed what was underneath:

Hooray—I love the way it turned out. The pictures are bold and bright, and the pages looked just like they did on the preview screens. I opted for their heavier paper stock and took advantage of a holiday sale where I got 20% off the book and free shipping. Since I had those coupons, I got their Standard Portrait size so I could get a little more bang for my buck. The only thing that surprised me was how thin the book is, and if you read to the end, I did a little pro/con of what I thought of Blurb. This is the best shot I could get of the book's thickness:


But with more than 30 pages in the book, and tons of white space, I'm not too worried about there not being enough space for our guests to write little notes here and there. And to help them out, on each page I wrote different writing prompts to get their minds rolling.

Okay, enough of my rambling. Do you wanna see the pages in the book? I tried taking photos of the actual book, but my camera skills were lacking, so you can see screen shots of the pages (there are 15 photos below, and if you want to read what's on them, just click the photo to enlarge).

















Yup, so that's our book! Now I can't wait for our guests to write us messages. I'm thinking of not having a guest book table and just having the book passed around during the cocktail hour and reception so people will have a little more time to sign more than just their name.

I wanted to give just a little Pro vs. Con with the Blurb book, because I know some people may be on the fence about whether they wanted to make their own book.

Pro:

• Extremely easy software to use
• Don't need to be connected to the Internet to layout your book
• LOVE the hardcover with photo right on the matted cover
• The pages seem very thick and of good quality
• The photos came out very high quality
• Very affordable and fast delivery
• They show you a preview of the first several pages of your book, which I think is pretty cool!
  

Con:

• I wish there were more layout options with the smaller books
• The "trim guidelines" totally freaked me out—I had several bleed pages and was afraid heads would get cut off. In the end, the only part of the book that was trimmed, I think, was in the gutter.
  
• The book, as a whole, is thinner/smaller than I thought it'd be for having 35 pages, but that's more of my fault than Blurbs
  

Result: All in all, I'm impressed with the book and will most likely use Blurb to make our wedding album (I'll just order one of their larger sizes—their book sizes are below). This particular book is the third one from the left.


Even though I'm impressed with how this one came out, I'm considering making another book with another company just so I can compare the two. I need to make another book (that you won't get to see till after the wedding, sorry!), so once I finish that up I'll let you know which company I'll use for our wedding album.

I love, love, LOVE my garter! I got it for free from a woman who makes them for soon-to-be military brides. Her turnaround was unbelievably fast and I just think it's gorgeous!

Fact: I am not a photographer and REALLY wish I was. Please look past the fact that some of these aren't in focus and that they're still a little more "yellow" than I'd like. I took them in as much natural light as I could find.

Putting these together took a long time, but I'm extremely happy with the way they turned out and the comments I've received about them have been overwhelmingly positive!

Since our printer at home isn't designed for printing invitations, we had Ella Elise Stationary print some of the pieces with a thermography style, which is a fancy way of saying some of the copy is raised on the paper. It looks extremely sharp in person. Bridget from Ella Elise also created the whole design. She then shipped printed pieces to me me and I put them together.

This is what our guests received in the mail. Since we sent them out just after Christmas, I didn't want them to be confused with Christmas cards, so I picked out "cotton candy" envelopes. The USPS also had wedding-cake stamps!


Then, when they opened it up, this is what they took out:

Open up the little "fold" and they saw this:

Here's a closer look at the main invitation:
Our "Information" card:

And the "response" card:


Then! After everything was printed and ready to go, I remembered an aspect I really wanted to include. Since we have a lot of our bridal party coming in from out of town, I wanted to put a little card in about the rehearsal dinner, just to let them know that it'd be great if they could come into town the Friday before. So, after slaving away on Word, I came up with these:


Practice makes perfect,
it's true what they say,
so please come for a run through
before the big day.

Meet at the Chapel
at 5 pm on the dot,
where Jessica and Kenny
will soon tie the knot.

After the practice,
when all is said and done,
please join us for dinner
for food, drinks, and fun!

Here's the whole shebang:

Material used:
Bronze Brown pocketfolds from Paper and More:










Cotton Candy mailing envelopes from Cards and Pockets:









And "cream" and "pink" paper from our local Xpedx (on SUPER sale, too!).

The offshore island:

Ooooh yeah! Since all of our drinks are provided, I plan on sipping pina coladas, margaritas, and other fruity and yummy drinks as often as possible! Basically, I plan on enjoying every single second that the Carribean has to offer.

After searching and searching, I finally found these Hot Cocoa Vials and knew they'd be perfect for our winter, wedding. Everything was perfect until I priced everything out and found out they'd be around $1 per favor, which is way more than I wanted to spend...So the search continued.

Then I found Hot Cocoa Cones...

     source

PERFECT! I found several different tutorials on how to make them, so I set out to make our own. I was able to make our favors for less than $.40 each and in under 10 steps! (Once I get our pro-pics back I'll show a good professional picture of these!)

Cast of Characters (to make 150 cones)

(3) 100, 12" Disposable Decorating Bags (bought these from Michaels using their 40 and 60% off coupons - regularly $19.99)

(2) Nesquick chocolate powder (we got ours from Costco for around $6)

(2) 75 teeny, tiny hair ties ($5)

(4) Marshmallows (from Walmart, $1 each)

yarn (Michaels for $2.50)

favor tags

Total spent: (around) $56. We made 150, so they came out to $.37 each!

Step 1: Cut decorating bags around 6.5"

Step 2: Fill bag with 2 tablespoons (or whatever your chocolate powder suggests) with chocolate:

Step 3: Use the teeny, tiny hair tie to close off the chocolate. (You may need to cut the access bag after tying it off. The picture below, for example, should be cut so there's just about a 1/2 inch of bag showing after the hair tie.)

Step 4: Insert chocolate filled cone into another decorating bag; make sure seams line up.

Step 5: Scoop out a 1/4 cup of marshmallows and poor into decorating bag on top of the chocolate cone.

Step 6: Tie a piece of ribbon, yarn, or string above the marshmallows. You need to make this tight so the marshmallows don't dry out. I tied it into two knots:

Step 7: After string is secure around bag, add your favor tage and tie it into a pretty bow

Step 8: Reapeat as many times as necessary