Courtesy of PW's Tomboybride

I am recently engaged to the love of my life and my very best friend, Wayne. We have been together for almost about 3 years.  We live in Oklahoma City with our two dogs (our kids), Jager & Roxy.  I knew I would marry Wayne within the first week of knowing him.  We dated long distance for about a year, then he moved to OKC!  He popped the question two days before my birthday this year.  He asked my Dad for his blessing and gave me the most beautiful ring I have ever seen. 

I am so excited to plan my wedding.  I have been waiting for this my whole life :)  We have set a tentive date of April 2010.  We are planning to wed in a Catholic Church--and that is about all of the plans we have made!

Wayne is planning on going back to school and I am looking forward to buying a new house with a yard for our pup's and garage!!  So, with that being said, I am not looking at going into debt for my wedding.  I am looking for unique ideas and ways to save money.  I have never been a DIY type of girl in the past, but I will be for the wedding of my dreams!

This website is great, and I have already met some great people with wonderful ideas!  If you see one of my pictures and you know a way to make the idea come to life, please let me know!!

 These are are our very naughty kids......

(Yes they emptied the trash can and spread it all over the house)

And this is my future hubby & I

I like this picture of us on St Patty's Day this year....

I am looking to do a very simple wedding invitations, with beautiful font/calligraphy.

Here are the invites that I got.....I love them.  They are very simple.  I plan to add tiny crystals to the middle of each flower. 

I would love to have calligraphy done by Nancy Howell. Here is my inspiration for the font/calligraphy.  The calligraphy style I love is called flourished upright script.  I think this type of font will really dress up the invites.

As soon I as I get an invite done, I will post a picture.

Above is what I was originally thinking about.... now I found these in a magazine, and Tomboybride is going to design them for me :)  I love them, I can't wait to see the final product!

And this will be our reception card, but we are going to use FI's family crest on it.  I love the personal touches!

Here is the James family crest we are going to use on the reception card.  My FI is pretty excited about incorporating this.

Here is a picture of my beautiful engagement ring!!  The middle band is actually the wedding band, it can seperate from the engagement ring.  I wear the whole ring, becuase he prefers it all together.  We are going to get another band to go underneath this as the wedding band.  I am still so in love with my ring!!

We are holding our reception at the Lansbrook Event Center in Oklahoma City.  It is a gorgeous building.  It has a large garden room where the majority of the reception will be held, at least that is where most of the action will happen.  It has a small room off the garden room that will for the bar area.  It has a bar and enough room to hold 6 or so bistro tables.  We will have a room for the kids away from all of the action.  Then depending on where our guest list ends, we will also get the fireside room. that is mostly open and the walls are all windows so they can see what is going on in the other rooms.  This will probably be for the buffet and for the adults who want to get away from the DJ.  The whole place has rock walls, lots of glass areas in the ceiling and tons of live trees and plants inside.  Here are some pictures I got of their website. 

My theme is something around enchanted forest or midsummer's night dream.  My colors are eggplant and lots of natural greens.  I am going to work on my inspiration board.  Any ideas?  Please send them my way!

I keep thinking of the terms, enchanted forest, midsummer's night dream or maybe secret garden when I envision my reception.  Here is my first shot of an inspiration board...

I changed my colors for the last time!  They were eggplant, sage & champagne.  Here are my new colors!  I think they go much better together!

We finally decided on a photographer. We are going with Art & Soul Photography in OKC.  I feel in love with her work at the first bridal show I went to, and for some reason kept looking elsewhere for a photographer. When someone brought up Art & Soul again, I remember how much I loved her work!  We are planning on taking our engagement pictures this fall.  Until then, here is her website

www.angelporchphotography.com

Dress-Norman Bridal Boutique

Venue-Lansbrook Event Center Oklahoma City, OK http://www.lansbrookeventcenter.com/

Photography-Art & Soul Photography http://www.angelporchphotography.com/

Dinner-Johnny Carino's

Bartending Service-Blue Label Bartending

DJ-

Ceremony-St John's Nepomuk Yukon, OK

Invites & Mongram-PW's tomboybride

Tuxes-Tom's Formal Wear--OKC, OK

BM Dresses-Norman Bridal Boutique

Photobooth-

DOC-http://www.gsoweddings.com/

Florist--Nancy Ward White Lace & Promises

Memory Vases

Napkins-Purchased, just need stamp

Candy Buffet-Need a couple more jars

Centerpieces--Purchased supplies, need to do mock up

JAMES letter

Entry way manzita

Bathroom Baskets

Photocards

Kids Activities

OOT welcome bags

Bachelorette Favors

OKC's first GTG with July2009bride, wildfire, youngbride 21 & wwj

And of course our ring shot!

She was one of the first dresses I tried on in July.  I felt like I just could not have found the first day of shopping, so I looked around for a couple of more months, then came back to her!  She will be in around the first March.  I will post pictures when I get her, until then her she is.....

I am in love with these dresses.  They were custom made by a bride's mother in South Africa.

Here is this bride's blog

http://www.elsjedesigns.blogspot.com

And here is the photog's website who took this picture

www.lizellelotter.co.za

Some of my bridesmaids/best friends hosted an engagement party for us. We had great food, lots to drink and a great evening with our family and closest friends.

Her Version

We met on May 28, 2006.  He was in town celebrating his brother's birthday.  Crystal talked me into meeting her out.  We were at Baker's street in Oklahoma City.  We had an akward introduction, but then spent the rest of the night with each other.  We talked non stop (ok, maybe I talked more and Wayne listened) I just enjoyed being around him, he was easy to talk to and he made me laugh.  The only problem was Wayne lived in St Louis and I lived in Oklahoma City.  We parted ways, and did not exchange phone numbers  I tried to be rational and forget about the evening, but I could not quit thinking about him.  Two days later, I went out for drinks with his brother and Crystal.  After a couple of drinks, I got his phone number from his brother, called him on my way home.  A couple of more days later, I talked him into coming back to Oklahoma City, I think he ended up driving 8 hours to spend less than 24 hours with me.  We have been inseperable since then.  I used to say I was smitten with him, but I knew instantly he was the one for me.

His Version

You have the gist of the story from reading above.  When I first saw Wendy, I was standing at Baker Street about to take a sip of my beverage. I was caught dead in my tracks as she walked right past me, not even giving me a second look.  I immediatly turned to my sister and said "I think I'm in love!!!"  As I watched her walk away, without even noticing me, I saw that she walked right up to Nate and Crystal and start talking to them.  My first thought was "I'm in!"  After our first awkward introduction, as Wendy said, the rest of the night went extremely well, just the typical stuff, fending off ex-boyfriends and things of that nature.  I was upset about not exchanging phone numbers with her, however a few days later I got the phone call from her, I think she was hoping that she could just leave a message.  We spent the next few days in constant contact and as it turns out we will be spending the rest of our lives with each other.