me, rachel
Just thought I'd give you a little taste of what's inspiring me for my wedding! I wish I could tell you where all of these pictures came from, but since I've been collecting them from blogs, Google images, and wedding planning websites for the past year, I have no clue!

Cute picnic food! (Left to Right) Very adorable way to serve drinks! LOVE the boxed lunches! I may look into seeing what we can do in this area, as it is so darn cute! The ice cream and fruit sandwitches look soo yummy! I showed you this cake before, and it is just so summery; it is, after all, strawberry shortcake! This jar is the cutest way to serve lemonade; I'd love to do pink lemonade with pieces of real strawberries (instead of the lemons)...a favorite of mine, and very yummy! These lolli-pops and rock candy favors are just too cute! Watermelon and ice cream are absolute MUSTS for picnic anything :-)

Picnic design ideas! (Left to Right) LOVE LOVE LOVE this; I don't know that it will work practically, but I love the look of picnic blankets on the ground! Bocce ball is just one idea we have of fun picnic games. These hay bales and quilts would make for a fun lounge area to rest tired dancing feet! Wildflowers are a perfect fit! lately, I have loved the idea of mix-matched china...maybe not for eating off of, but as serving dishes? adorable. These wooden signs could totally be used everywhere! Since our ceremony location is only 2 miles from our reception location, they could even point the way! Mason jars are adorable, and I totally want to use them to decorate the reception! And this photobooth...adorable! Daddy's gonna help me build one!

I spend way too much time collecting photos that inspire me, hopefully this little taste will inspire you, too!
me, rachel
So, lately I've been wondering what do do about my hair. Not so much about how to cut it, thought that's been on my mind lately too...but I mean how to wear my hair on my wedding day. Like everything else that is a part of this wedding, I have collected a folder full of pictoral inspriation! I start by collecting any and all pictures I like, whether they are possible or not. Then I can go through them again and find the ones that are easilly used, and the ones that can be altered to fit my event.

In the hair category, however, I'm pretty much stumped. See, I love my hair, I really do, but I wish that it was naturally curly, or at the very least could hold a curl. Because of this wish, all my favorite pictures seem to be ones like this one:


This is by far my favorite picture in my folder. However, my very straight smooth hair couldn't do this if you begged. Trust me, I've tried begging. However, I can adapt this! I looked at it and said, "what do I like most about this picture?" Besides the obvious love of the loose curls and the textured style, I realized I LOVED the flowers! So then I found options like this one:

Now this one would work in my hair! It is much more like my texture. Oh, a note about flowers: I'd be wearing them for the reception. I have veils for the ceremony :-)

That isn't my favorite style. I'm not entirely sure what I want, to be honest. I have lots of pictures of smooth buns, but those seem so...boring to me. I guess I want my hair to be elegant and beautiful, I'd love for it to be curly (for just once in my life!), but I also want it to be "me."

These are the things that I do know about what I want:

1) I want my hair up. I wear my hair down everyday, so wearing it straight, for me, is not special. If I had it down, I'd want it to be curly, but I'd be surprised if my hair would hold a curl (when worn down) for the length of the ceremony, let alone the entire reception!

2) Related to 1, I don't want it completely plastered with hair spray. The only times I have ever had semi-successfull curls were times that my hair was so stiff with hairspray that it was crunchy. Ew! Not beautiful bride!

3) While I want it up, I don't want it WAY up. I want my hair on the back of my head or the nape of my neck. I don't want it to add any height to my already 5'7"-before-'my-3-inch-heels self!

4) I'd love curls of some sort, although this is not as necessary as the other three. Curls are romantic, and to me, they are special! I know all the girls with curly hair who read this wouldn't agree with me, but when my hair is curled, it's a special ocasion. If I want to be pretty (and I do, it is my wedding, after all!), one of my first thoughts is of beautiful curls!

So, I don't think that's too picky...actually it must not be because I still have no idea what to do with my hair! I really need your help! I'd like to decide on this detail before too long because Michele, the amazing girl who married Dave's brother Wes 2 weeks ago, has agreed to do my hair for me, and I'd like to talk to her about it before school is done and I go back home! Plus, having time for a trial run would be nice, if she's ok with that.

Any ideas on my hair delimma? I'd love your help!
me, rachel
I just had to show you these! I threw them together on Sunday, based on some ideas and inspiration pictures I had gathered previously (maybe that'd be something interesting to tell you about someday; my inspiration and where I get it from. That might be fun!). With a little input from Holly, my roommate Kelly, and my future sister Rachel, this is the final product!

FYI, the ink goes to the edge of the page. If you were to click on the actual image, there's a white border; ignore that. It's not real. 

This is the size of a standard postcard, which is awesome for several reasons. One, it's different! And obviously I'm all about different/quirky/fun in my stationary! Two, it actually saves money! The postcard itself costs the same as a traditional folding card, but now we don't have to pay for envelopes, and postage is half as much as regular cards! Saving money win!

So, I'm super excited about getting the stationary done! At least the stuff that had to go to the printers. There is a minor amount of printing that we will be doing in a home printer, but I don't have to worry about that yet!

What do you think? Is this too out there for you? Maybe you'd rather stick with the traditional calligraphy and flowers, all romantic and beautiful? Or maybe you like it this quirky, and even have a few more quirky additions you'd like to make! I'd love to hear your opinions!
me, rachel
Wow...this week's been absolutely crazy! I had the school paper to layout over the weekend, and have been playing catch-up in my classes all week. Actually, I'm still catching up. I shouldn't be here. Shhh...don't tell!

But I simply had the urge to tell whomever cares to listen about something wedding related today.

You know, when I started blogging about planning my wedding, I did so mainly because I knew that if a friend of mine were planning her wedding, I'd love to know what's going on in her planning process! I love juicy details about fun stuff like this. This was also my thought process behind posting pictures of (almost) every wedding gown I tried on, and those were a hit! (I say "almost," because the very last time I went in, it was on a whim, and I didn't have a camera with me. Sad day, my friends.) Here's a link to those, just in case you missed them: And the Bride Wore...

Anyway, because I've been so busy, wedding stuff has unfortunately been placed on the back burner. I'd so much rather plan my wedding than do my homework, but what cand you do? I haven't accomplished anything significant or interesting in the past few days, but still want to talk about it, because it's fun! So I thought I could instead show you some of the things that have been on my mind lately.

Dave and I have been trying to finalize our registry lately, but as I said before, I over think things like this. You don't even want to know how many times I have changed the colors of our kitchen towels, or the number of salt shakers I have looked at. But this overthinking is not all negative. I am enjoying the process of picking and choosing many of the elements of our future home together, making sure it will represent us!

For example, this little treasure is adorable! Totally fun, and something that is just weird (and, OK, childish) enough that it would make perfect sense to find it my our future home.

However, I cannot justify spending (or asking someone to spend) $37.99 on salt and pepper shakers! But it made my day just to see them. Seriously. You can't look at those monkeys and not smile!

Another thing I have realized through all this overthinking is that I want everything to be perfect (which should be obvious...as I am a perfectionist...hence the overthinking...). I want to know going in that everything I have works together, and that instead of trying to find things that "work," I can have a theme and find things that "go." For example, the kitchen towels that I spent so much time mulling over? The reason for that was that I decided I wanted a kitchen with subtle pink accents (not a grandma kitchen, but enough that it looks like me!). I figured it couldn't be too hard to find pink towels to match this:

But pink things aparently only exist in October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month), and on Valentines Day. This is very sad news for a pink lover like me! So, we decided to get pretty green towels for now, and I can add other pink accents as we go along.

So that's what's been on my mind lately! Hope it entertains you and/or tides you over until I get something wedding-related done!
me, rachel
As of today, we have 100 days left until our wedding! It's crazy that it's coming up so quickly! That's only a few days over 3 months...when we got engaged we had 14 long months to go! It's amazing how fast the time has flown!

Last week, I was home for spring break. My main goals for the week were to finish--and send to print--the invitations; to look at bridesmaids dresses; to look at flower, cake, and decor options; as well as other general wedding planning.

I got the invitations done and sent to the printer (along with the RSVP cards, but I guess that's all included under the "Invitation" umbrella). We looked at bridesmaid dresses, and actually ordered all 4! One has even come in already! I went to look at silk flowers to see if they'd be an option. We didn't get much done on the cake front, unfortunately, and since decor isn't as urgent as other things, it's been pushed off to a later date.

But ever since the beginning of last week, my mind has been going overtime with wedding ideas and stresses. I've come up with numerous different food ideas, found decor inspiration, reconciled my ideal seating with the practical (at least in my mind...we'll see what the other ever-practical planners have to say about it), and thought through song ideas almost constantly. Even when I'm in class, I'm distracted by quaint images of icream cone-clutching children, watermelon slices, and blankets in the shade. I have 10 different idea lists in every imaginable place, becaus if I think of something I don't want to forget it!

I was hoping to run through a lot of these ideas this weekend, and possibly do something about some of them, however school obligations have come up (that I knew about, but didn't have in the front of my mind) and we'll see what all I actually get done.

How about you? Did your brain go over-time when you realized how close your wedding was getting? Or are you in the throes of it now? How do you stay focused on everyday tasks with something as interesting as a wedding on your mind?
me, rachel
Last time I talked about bridesmaid dresses, I was still waiting on one lovely lady, Miss Holly, to pick out her dress. She did that this past weekend, and here's her dress!



This dress is totally cute, and Holly seems to like it! Now, there are a few things you need to know about Holly. She doesn't wear pink, and she doesn't wear dresses. However, she loves me more than her pride, and has agreed to wear a pink dress for me! Isn't she awesome?

Another thing that I have promised updates for is our website. I showed you a picture of it as we were designing it, and promised I'd post a link once it was online. Here it is! daveandrachel2010.com

Let me know what you think! I think there's still one or two pages in progress, so if there is Latin gibberish, or information looks silly and/or incomplete, it's probably not done yet.

Finally, I'd like to show you our invitations! I've been working on them for a really long time, and I'm really happy with the result! We sent them into the printer early last week, and should be getting them back in a month or so.

This is the invitation:
It will be printed in a #10 size, which is the size of a standard business envelope! Totally nontraditional, funky, and fun! It will be flat printed on white linen-texture paper.

Here's the RSVP:

It will be printed in A1 size, (basically tiny enough to fit in the business envelope), also flat printed on linen textured paper. I'm super excited to get them back!

I'm thinking about adding thank you cards on to our order, because it won't cost any more than buying generic, mass-produced thank you cards to have them custom printed, and I could get them to match the rest of our stationary!

I'm so excited to see everything coming together!
me, rachel

Dave's brother Wes got married this weekend to a wonderful girl named Michele. This has been a long time coming, and we were all so excited to share in their wedding!

Originally they had planned on eloping (if one can "plan" to elope...), but her family talked her into a small ceremony. Wes' parents were unable to attend as they are missionaries in Africa, and can't exactly stop in for weekend visits. To solve this problem, the happy couple will be going to Africa for their honeymoon and having another small ceremony there so his parents can attend.

They got engaged on December 30, so their wedding plans came together quickly! Shele already had a dress, so that part wasn't an issue, and they had one attendant each. Will, Wes' identical twin, was the best man, and Beth, Shele's younger sister, was the maid of honor. Coordinating matching outfits for one is easy!

They chose a lovely bed and breakfast in our area and rented it out for both the ceremony and the reception. The bride also stayed there the night before the wedding.

The ceremony was a very short affair at 1:30, after which they had a lovely hors doeuvers reception. They had scones, finger sandwitches, and the cutest collection of china tea cups with a selection of loose teas.

And the cake.

Can you believe she made that herself?? I don't know when she found the time! It was absolutely beautiful.

They had a short time for dancing, kicking it off with their first dance and the father-daughter dance. The rest of the dancing consisted of the "couples songs" of the various couples in attendance! Grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters all heard their first dance song dedicated to them in a tribute to the wonderful families supporting Wes and Shele. It was absolutely adorable.

Dave has a small wedding DJ business, so Wes asked him to DJ for the reception. This is the first wedding I have attended that he has DJed, and I learned a few very important things.

First of all, when the DJ is your date, you never dance to the end of a song. At least not when he has improvised his set-up to deal with the limited space availiable.

Secondly, when set-up is improvised and space is limited, problems are more likely to occur. A cable went bad in the middle of a song, and Dave is convinced that it wouldn't have happend with a sound board. And when things go wrong he feels personally responsible.

I also learned that I'm really bad at encouraging when I am tired. And I was tired. I meant my encouragement to sound like this: "I love you darling dearest mister! I think you did a beautiful job at the wedding, and the music was fine. The small kinks that happened are the sort of things that happen, and they certainly didn't ruin the wedding! Everyone was happy and still dancing after it was fixed, and it was wonderful!"

Instead, it ended up sounding more like this:
"It was FINE. Nobody cares. It was great. Shush. I'm tired. Take me home."

Aren't I a good encourager?


Speaking of minor wedding snafus, we arrived on location (I came with Wes and company), Beth came down the stairs and asked Wes if he had the ring. Needless to say, Wes hurriedly sent someone home after that very important band. Also, shortly before the ceremony, he realized that he had forgotten the marriage license. So after the ceremony someone else ran back and picked that up.

But over all,
the wedding was beautiful. The reception was only about 2 hours long, but it was perfect. It was a day full of loved ones for Wes and Shele, and a wonderful time for all of us, witnessing the ultimate expression of their love for each other. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Wes' parents could have been there!
me, rachel
I'm home on spring break this week. Yeah, I know, this snowy winter wonderland is hardly the place for the 'ideal' college spring break...no beaches, bikinis, or burns (the last one is a good thing at least!). None the less, I am home, and it's nice to relax! I've been able to visit with friends, finish up the invitations (!!! I'll have to show those off later), get more registering done (with Emily, MOH extraordinaire), and kick back and relax.

One of the biggest accomplishment so far this week has been ordering 3 of the 4 bridesmaid dresses! I have 4 bridesmaids, and each of them is a different shape and size. They're all gorgeous, but they don't all look the same. So, because a happy girl is a pretty girl, I never considered making them all wear the same dress. Instead, I picked a color at David's Bridal (guava), and told them to get knee-length dresses. Beyond that, it was up to them. We've been in several times before, and not found anything. Usually at least one of the girls was cranky or would have rather been somewhere else, which doesn't make for a pleasant shopping experience! At our last excursion, Emily decided on the dress she wanted, so Monday while we were out, we ran in, she tried it on again in a better size, and ordered it.

Here it is:
Now, this isn't Emily. I have a picture of Emily in this dress, but it's a horrible color, and the wrong size. So instead of putting that horrendous picture (and many others like it!) up, I thought I'd show you the dresses in the proper color on models.

This dress is uber-cute, comfy, and makes Emily look like a babe! Well, she is anyway, but it just fits her so well! It hugs all the right places, the neckline is a fantastic shape, and the hemline is a great length for her! She was really excited about it after trying it on over Christmas, and this week she finally ordered it.

Sarah and Hannah didn't fall in love with anything like Emily did (of course, that is the nature of Emily. She is always in love with something...when I was shopping for my dress, she had three picked out...for her. She's decided to plan a wedding and plug in a groom later!). They each had a few to come back to, but nothing they couldn't live without. This week, we went back, and both of them found something they love! This is what Sarah decided on:
It looks awesome on her! It accentuates her amazing legs, and the awesome heels she is so fond of will look amazing with this dress (Sarah loves fun shoes!). The halter ties behind and hangs like a gauzy scarf down her back. It fits her like a strapless dress (which she loves) but has a neckline for added interest (which I love), and everybody's happy!

Hannah had quite a few choices, because everything is cute in a 2. However, because she is petite, she had trouble with quite a few of the dresses. Many of them were too long or shaped wrong for her adorable frame. This is the one she decided on:

It makes her look so grown-up!

We decided that everyone will wear silver shoes, this way they're not stuck with ugly dyed shoes in this pink, because it will never match anything, ever again. I hope the pink isn't too awful, it actually looks much better in person, it's richer, brighter maybe. These pictures look like bubblegum, the actual color is somewhere between a cirius fruit and a jewel tone.

I'm super excited about everybody's dresses! I wanted to make sure each girl felt good in her dress (believe it or not, I didn't want to end up in the ugly bridesmaid dress hall of fame). Hopefully the color is ok, but I think everyone but Holly likes it (Holly actually doesn't like pink, or dresses, but because she loves me, she's agreed to wear both for my wedding!).

Holly is the last girl left to order her dress...and when she decides, I'll let you know what she picked!