Weddingbee bios

Here is our house and our guard dog!  Mason is really a big baby!  We love our first home!

We had just wrapped up some time with my family in Indiana and Chicago and then we were off to Niagara falls to meet his sister and her family where we were going to help them drive/move back down to Florida.  As the only son in the family, my FI gets roped into helping his 3 sisters move, A LOT. 

In preparation, I had done research and booked a room for the entire family to stay at the Embassy Suites on the Canada side of the falls.  The week of the trip, my FMIL found out she did not get her passport and she would not be able to cross the border.  I tried to cancel the room at the Embassy Suites, but it required a 72 hour cancellation and it was too late.  The family ended up booking a VERY small room for the 3 adults and 3 children on the american side of the falls.  As we dropped themunderstand why he was being so rude to his family.  In the end he, won and we drove over the boarder to Canada. 

We got checked into our room, and immediately upon entering, I went to the floor to ceiling windows to look at the horshoe falls.  They were all lit up with lights and it really was beautiful.  I as stood at the window blabbering about the falls, my FI came up behind me, wrapped his arms around me and put the ring in front of me asking if I would marry him.  I teared up and I had to sit down in the chair, and told him to get down on one knee and put the ring on me.  It was perfect.

Close up on ring from our room with the falls in the background:

The view from our room really was great!

Later the next day we rode the Maid of the Mist

 

We didn't have a huge budget or need for e-pics, so the FSIL who is way into photography took ours out at the IL's home.  We are really close to the Georgia border, so it is true Southern Florida.

This first one is the front of our Save the Dates

 

 

All of my girls were in town this weekend and we went to Davids Bridal.  I had not shown them my dress yet and we had not tried or looked at anything on.  We knew with my dress it needed to be long dresses and we were going with "Fern" green. 

It fit all of my 6 bridesmaids perfectly, everyone from a size 2 to a 14.  We all sat around Davids Bridal and no one was itching to take the dress off.  2 of the girls offered to go ahead and order their dresses that same day.  So Exciting!

I bought my dress!  I think it is almost exactly 6 months before our wedding and I bought it this weekend!  I drove from Tallahassee and met my mom and sister in Jacksonville.  The southside Davids Bridal was wonderful.  The store was crowded but we had a great experience.  The staff was all calm and happy to be at work. 

I was having trouble with a dress because I don't think I am really a lacy or fancy style of girl.  I was in love with the Maggie Sottero Adelaide but in the end I decided it was a nice evening dress style.  Not quite special enough for my wedding dress.

I found another really elegant dress at Davids but again, it was too elegant/fancy for my personality.  At the last minute our DB consultant pulled this dress.  It fit my personality perfectly. 

For lack of a better term, we started calling it a swan dress.  It fits because we are having our wedding at the zoo.  I knew this was the dress because I did not want to take it off or have anyone else try it on.  Also, it was the first dress that I could imagine wearing when the church doors are pulled open.  And most importantly, I wanted to party down all night in this dress!  There is no way I would consider a reception dress!

This dress is so different, I do not think I am going to share with anyone besides my mom and sister.   I really want there to be a WOW factor.  I might have to share with my BMs because it is going to be hard to find BM dresses that goes with this.  I am trying to find a good way to describe this dress!

The dress is designed by Monique Luo and is Style CH515.  I ordered it in Ivory.  

We really wanted to try to get the guys to buy their own suits.  I have never seen my FI in a full suit, let alone a tux.  Our wedding is on the casual side for a large reception.  Plus, it was $150 towards something that could be worn again rather than $150 down the drain in a rental. 

However, I felt really bad asking the guys to all buy chocolate brown suits that would be hard to wear again.  We toyed with the idea of doing a black or charcoal colored suit and decided that would have to do.  After looking at Mens Warehouse, Macys, Dillards, JCPenny, etc, we still couldn't find anything we liked within our price range (and that we could get 6-8 suits in various sizes of).  Finally, based on a weddingbee recommendation we went to look at some brown suits at Kohls.  They do have a three button jacket and pleated pants which is more traditional (less modern) than what we were hoping for, but it will have to do. 

Here is the image from Kohls.com.

 

We also did not want the guys to have to go buy a specific shade of brown shoes, so we are doing black (as in the picture) since we figured most guys have or should have a pair of black dress shoes. 

We also will ask the guys to provide their own white button down shirts because again we figured they should have one.

We are currently looking for some ties that have a nice green to match the fern green in the wedding party.

 

Here was my hair inspirpation photos:

 

Here is how my hair turned out:

I was so happy that I had my makeup professionally done.  It was SO hot on my wedding day but the airbrush makeup stayed on all night and looked great.  I also had fake eyelashes put on (full strips) with waterproof glue.  They stayed on great and looked fantastic for pictures. 

I actually broke out the week of the wedding and had some bumps on my eyebrows from getting them cleaned up.  The makeup covered it all beautifully.  I paid $150 plus tip for the trial and day of services.  She even came to the hair salon on the day of to do it!

I had little bit of a smokey eye which I loved.  She actually used a blue/silver shadow and it looked great with my brown eyes.  The lip color was a tint and I just touched up as the day went on. 

I am so happy with my ring.  The center is .64 carats and the total ring is 1.75 ctw.  I cannot wait to get my band to go with it!

After trying on 2 pairs of shoes I was back to the search.  I now know that I need a heel under 2 inches.  This is really hard when you still want to look cute on your wedding day!

Unlisted - 2 of a Kind Sandal

 

I was so torn with bouquets because all searches for green and white bouquets come up very "lime" green.  I love lime green, but the bridesmaid dresses that were chosen are in "fern" green. 

 

Here is how my bouquet turned out:

After much debate and time, here is how our invitation suite came out.  All of these will be printed on ivory paper and backed on a gold shimmer card stock.  The three cards and a small 4 bar envelope will be included in a gold shimmer envelope (A7) and in a larger outer plain ivory envelope (A8). The response and reception card will be cut apart, the are just together here because it will make it easier to crop later.

I love the design and am so happy that I was able to design them myself! We are getting ready to take them to our local printer and assemble them this weekend.  As soon as I have actual pictures, I will post online. 

Also, the fonts used are Edwardian Script for our names and BernhardMod BT for the other words. 

 

The other weekend I was out shopping with my bridesmaids at TJ Maxx and found this wonderful holder for only $25.  As you can see it is rather large.  The cards will slide very easily into the cage, but it may be more difficult to get them out! 

We are going to be married in the church I started attending around 7th grade.  It is a beautfil exterior right on the water and the inside is very unique. 

 

Here is a picture from our wedding day:

Picture below from Cathy Heinz Photography:

Alter with arrangements

We also did a Guest Declaration of Support during the ceremony which I teared up during.  It was so nice to turn around and be able to see all the guests that were at the church to support us. 

And then we Kissed as husband and wife!

We had a deposit down on another venue and had went to talk to the florist about the major decorations that would be needed for the space.  As we described the look and feel that we were going for (natural, rustic, etc) the florist asked if we had visited the venue space at the Brevard Zoo.  We had not heard of it, but the next day we went to look at it.  They even had the chocolate brown table linens that I wanted to rent.  It is a smaller space (we can only fit 22 tables ~ 175 guests) but there is a large deck that overlooks the giraffe exhibit.  I am really excited!

 

Here are some sample pictures from other weddings:

Melbourne Florida is a very interesting place to get married, especially if you aren't planning a beach wedding.  Here are our vendors though.  If you are from the Brevard area and would like to discuss vendors, please let me know!

Ceremony:  Eastminster Presbyterian Church

Reception: Brevard Zoo

DJ:  DJ Master Key

Cake:  Publix of Suntree

Flowers:  Publix of Suntree

Caterer:  Creative Catering by the Farinas

Photographer: Cathy Heinz and 13:13 Photography

Since money is really tight right now, we were really having a hard time deciding on a honeymoon, especially because we didn't have a dream destination and we didn't know how much we would be able to save.  Last weekend, I got a phone call from Hilton Grand Vacations and it was a timeshare pitch.  They were offering a 4 day, 3 night stay at one of their hotels for $299.  I got them to reduce the price to $199 and throw in a $100 future coupon.  We can choose between any of the three resorts in Orlando Florida, or any of the two in Las Vegas.  While we would love to go to Vegas, flights from Orlando to Vegas in June are running about $350 per person.  To try to save $700, I think we are going to go with Orlando. 

Right now, we are leaning towards the Hilton Grand Vacation on International Drive.  The Parc Soleil is their newest resort, but is not as big.  The resort by Sea World is the oldest resort.  It will make it very easy to just drive over Sunday afternoon and check in!