Fit for a Princess!

I mentioned the outfits for my flower girls in my shoes post, and I finally found the picture to share with you. I knew I wanted something other than the typical white flower girl dress (although they'd look precious in those, too!) so I started looking around online for alternatives. I have no idea how I stumbled across these, as I don't think I was even looking on Etsy, but I loved them! This particular tutu has been taken off of her site for now because her turnover is slower than she'd like, but I messaged her about them and she said she's always more than willing to do custom orders.


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How cute is that?! I think the black and pink tutu is a little too much, but the tutus are all custom, so I can change the color. I'm not sure whether I'd like all black or all white more, but I'm leaning more towards white. Or maybe all light pink? You can also customize the length of the tutu, so I'd be asking her to make them longer than what's shown. The length would be more like this:


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I had to use that picture - Did you notice what shoes the little girl is wearing?! Perfect! The color would be only one shade, though. Actually, as I was just looking at it, I kind of like that exact tutu and we could just find a top to match (probably white or black). Maybe it's the damask that's too overwhelming in the first option. I think I was drawn to the damask in the first place, but now I'm thinking it might be too much for a flower girl. (How fun would it be for playing dress up, though?!)

Then Miss Frozen Yogurt on Weddingbee posted about the petticoats her flower girls will be wearing. My mom had also told me about a cute petticoat outfit she'd seen a few days before I read the post about them. They are so adorable:


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I feel like $70 is a bit much for petticoats, though. And that doesn't even include the top. Maybe we could DIY these? I found a tutorial here and I'm sure there are others.

Both of my flower girls are so excited to get to wear tutus (although I'm sure a petticoat would be close enough!) and ballet slippers! We talk about it every time I see them now. I'm excited too - They'll look like little fairy princesses! I do love the flower on the skirt of the first tutu, and if we go with those I'd like them to wear something that coordinates in their hair. Actually, I'd like them to wear something in their hair regardless. I found these ADORABLE headbands, but my younger flower girl is NOT a big fan of wearing things on her head for extended periods of time. They're precious, though:


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The same seller also makes these smaller flower bands that can be worn as a bracelet or as a hair band:


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I'm debating about DIYing flower hair clips for them, like these:


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Ahh, there are too many cute choices for little girls! So, I'm turning to you guys - Which option do you think is cuter? I think I've changed my mind about 4 times just in the time it took me to write this post. As of now, I'm leaning more towards the second tutu option. Any opinions/suggestions are welcome!

More of the Groom's Guys

I probably should've included our ushers in the post about David's groomsmen - Oops! I love our ushers and I know they'll do a fabulous job on our big day. Two of them are SO excited (well, I think all of them are excited.. Two of them are just very excited) - They tell us all the time how they can't wait until June!

Two of our ushers are my older brothers. They're much older than me, but are still so important to me. They both love David and get along with him really well, which means a lot. I love that David fits right in with my family!


Here are all of my siblings together with our momma at brother A's wedding last November! Brother N is on the back right and Brother A is obviously in the white vest

Another one of our ushers is one of David's good friends that he refs with. I don't think I've talked much about it yet, but David refs a LOT of soccer. He's been doing it since he was 12 or so, and has worked his way up to reffing Division II! I know he really enjoys it, even though it takes up a lot of his free time. He goes to school, works 30 hours a week, and refs on average 2 games every week. I just wish there weren't so many weekend games - I hate not getting to see him for over a month. ANYWAY, all that to say, J and David ref together! And I've actually become good friends with J's wife K. They have two BEAUTIFUL daughters. I'll include a picture of them too just because they're so darn cute.


I guess guys don't take many pictures together, because that's the only one I can find of them besides this one where you can't see their faces:



And here's J's wife and kiddos:


Our last usher is actually David's younger brother's best friend, M. He's become like a little brother to David and actually, to me, too. He is such a sweetheart and an amazing football/track star! He used to ask me if he could be our ringbearer when David and I finally got married, but I think usher is a better fit. He's never even been to a wedding, so he was thrilled when David asked him to be on of our ushers!


I love this picture even though it's almost 4 years old! They look so little!

He looks more like this now:


How did you choose your ushers? Did your fiance chose them for the most part, or were you a big part of the decision?

Blog Award!

I hate Tuesdays. They're the longest days of my whole week - I'm on campus from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM without any breaks longer than 15 minutes. So it isn't an understatement to say it MIGHT have made my day to find this post - Katie, my blog friend from Random Reflections of a Perfectionist, gave me a Kreativ Blogger award! So thanks, Katie, for making me smile! (PS: you should totally become a follower on her blog if you aren't already!)



The deal is I have to post 7 facts about myself and then pass on the award to 7 other bloggers. So here are 7 completely random, slightly odd, but totally true facts about myself:

1. It really bothers me when things are uneven. I don't know why, but it drives me crazy if things are unsymmetrical. Or, for example, if I'm getting gas, it has to land on an even dollar amount. If it goes to $20.01, I have to make it $21.00. I know, it's strange. And David doesn't understand it so he'll purposely make things uneven just to bug me!

2. I have at least 4 different dream jobs. First, I want to be a Child Life Specialist (which is what I'm going to school for). I'd also love to be a wedding planner/coordinator. Eventually, I want to be a full time wife and mommy. :) And if all else fails, I'd love to be an interior designer or photographer. Ha, those are kind of all across the board, huh?

3. I don't like steak, seafood, or chicken on a bone. I'm really not sure why other than the fact that none of it tastes good to me. Trust me, several people have tried to convince me otherwise and it just isn't gonna happen.

4. I'm one of 6 kids. My 4 older siblings are half-brothers and sisters, but I never think of them like that. I love having a big family, but I only want 3 kids of my own. David is stuck on having only 2 kids, but we'll see. ;)

5. I am incredibly competitive, sometimes it's almost embarrassing. I hate to lose at anything, even if it's a game of putt putt. David's really competitive too, but he always tells people that I may be the only person he's found that's more competitive than him.

6. I really really REALLY want to go to Africa and work with the orphans there someday. I think they're SO adorable and I've heard so many stories about how loving the children there are. I may end up bringing a few home with me, but I'm ok with that!

7. I'd consider myself pretty crafty, but not at all artistic. I can't draw to save my life. I have no idea how that happens, but it's true!

Ok, so I'm giving the award to 7 blogs I enjoy reading:

1. Twists & Turns of a Life w/ Curls
2. You Can't Take It With You
3. Nicole at East Coast Wedding
4. Burning River Bride
5. The Roddy Bride
6. The Decisive Bride
7. A Creative Bride

I highly suggest checking all of them out! :) Thanks again, Katie!

*EDIT: I also received this award from Stephanie at "I Do" at the Zoo and Ali at Joy is the Best Makeup! You girls are too sweet!

Shoes, shoes, shoes!

I'm not one of those brides who bought/ordered/returned several pairs of shoes before deciding on 'the ones.' I actually bought them randomly (although I knew what I wanted) at Payless last spring! Since I'm the same height as David and I don't really like being taller than him, especially in pictures, I've always worn shoes without heels for all of our formal dances. Ballet slippers are my absolute favorite - I used to dance and I wore them for our sophomore homecoming and they were SO comfortable! I really wanted to wear actual ballet slippers for the wedding, but wasn't thrilled with the colors I found them in and didn't want to risk attempting to dye them. So I found these instead:





I love the color of them (although I think it's a little off in the pictures), and if my bridesmaids decide to wear matching pink shoes it'll make for some CUTE pictures! And I definitely want a picture like this too, since David is totally on board with wearing fun socks:


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And I can't leave out my precious flower girls! I know I haven't shown you guys what they'll be wearing yet, but these will totally complete the outfit - Trust me, it's adorable and worth the wait! Every little girl should get to wear pretty sparkly shoes!




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I'm not sure whether I like the light pink or dark pink better, but I'm learning more towards the lighter color. I have awhile to decide though, because little girls are constantly growing and I want to be sure of what size their feet are before I buy them. Target's website has reviews for the shoes that date back to 2007, so I'm guessing they'll be keeping the shoes around for awhile meaning I'm in no hurry. And who can beat $12.99?! I don't even need to wait for a sale!

Look at this precious picture I found right after I found the shoes on Target's website - They look so cute with this little girl's white dress:


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I'm so excited! We'll definitely have to have a picture of all of the bridal party's shoes/socks and I want one of the flower girls' ballet slippers with mine! I'm making them flip flops to change into for the reception (because their love for flip flops came from me!) so their little toesies are more comfortable - unless of course they don't want to take their sparkly shoes off! I'll be sure to blog about their flip flops after I make them. I'm definitely going to be changing into flip flops for the reception. Anyone who knows me won't be surprised because I pretty much live in flip flops. I'm sure they'll be pink, too!

Were perfect shoes really important to you or did you purchase your shoes on a whim? And are you jumping on board with the colored shoes/socks trend? If so, is your groom excited to wear fun socks or did you have to talk him into it?

The Wait is Over!

...For our engagement pictures! I got the CD on Saturday, and I am SO excited to share them with you! FSIL did an amazing job - I can't believe I'm getting such a talented sister! We're still hoping to be able to schedule another shoot so we can take some pictures at the campanile where David proposed, and get a few more of the shots I love, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. And it will likely be in October, so the leaves will have changed and it will actually look like fall! Yay! Ok, enough rambling. Here's what you want to see:


















*This one was David's idea - I'd seen one similar and thought it was cute, but I am obviously not as cute hanging from a tree branch! His face cracks me up, though!











Sorry for the picture overload - I've just been so excited to post them! There are a few more with our save the date signs that I'll be posting soon. I think I've decided on which picture with each sign I'm going to use, so I'll be working on the layout of our STD in the next few days! :)

Which picture(s) are your favorite? I need help deciding which one to use for the wall sticker I won in Roddy Bride's giveaway! I'm going to use a black and white version of whatever picture we use so it'll go with any decor, so what do you think?

Those Who Have Gone Before Us

In honor of my grandparents' 61st wedding anniversary (isn't that crazy?!) I wanted to blog about a special project I'm doing to honor the marriages of those closest to us.

My mom's parents' wedding picture - She's gorgeous!

I can't remember where I first saw the project, but I've seen several examples of brides who framed pictures of their parents' and grandparents' wedding pictures. I loved the idea of honoring the commitments that those close to us made so many years ago. Here's the look I'm going for (except with matching black frames that I've bought):

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Our parents' wedding pictures will be in 5x7 frames and our grandparents' pictures will be in 4x6 frames. They'll be next to the memorial candles and probably the card box. I told David to start asking his mom about their family's because he's kind of known to put things off, but he actually did it last night. His mom said she has her parents' wedding picture somewhere, and his dad is going to work on finding his parents'. I think I'll be making all of the pictures black and white and making little pink signs to sit in front of them to explain who is in each picture.

Are you doing anything to honor the marriages of your parents or grandparents?

The Groom's Guys

I blogged about my ladies almost 2 weeks ago so I suppose I should introduce the guys, too! David had pretty much decided on his groomsmen before he even proposed. The majority of them are family and the other two might as well be - He's be friends with them since kindergarten! I'm so excited to have them play a big part in our special day.

David's having his two brothers as his best men. I'm having a maid of honor and a matron of honor, so he asked if it was "ok" to have 2 best men. Of course I said yes - We're making our own rules for the big day! David is the middle brother so he has special, yet different, relationships with both of them and this is a way to honor both. His older brother will take care of most of the 'big' responsibilities like planning the bachelor party (especially since his younger brother is only 16). Without further adieu:





His groomsmen include my "little" brother (who is actually a good 5 inches taller than me) GM M and his two childhood friends, who have the same initials! Both are GM J.


*I just realized we have very few pictures with my brother - This is probably the most recent one I have of either of us with him and it was taken almost a year ago after our older brother's wedding! Please excuse the sweatyness - I told you I love to dance!

I wish I had pictures from kindergarten of David and his other groomsmen to post, but these will have to do:


*I promise they're just friends... There's never a dull moment with them, though!



And David's JrGM is my nephew, M! JrGM M and David's sister, JrBM K, are almost the same age, so they'll be so cute walking down the aisle together.



Our crazy (but precious!) ring bearer is my other nephew who will be 2 in April. He loves David! I can't choose which picture to use, so I'm posting 2!





And there you have our bridal party! It's definitely a group of fun and supportive people who will make our big day SO much fun. I can't imagine a better group of family and friends to stand up there with us!

Did your FI/groom have his groomsmen "chosen" already? Or was it a tough decision for him?

Slideshow Plans

I have an obsession with pictures. I absolutely love them. I love looking through old pictures and taking new ones. Pictures help me remember every little detail about the day/time/place the picture was taken. David complains sometimes about how many pictures I take, but I told him I guarantee I could tell him what/when every single picture of us is from. (That's a pretty big deal, considering we've been together for almost 6 years and have hundreds of pictures together!) Pictures are playing a big role in our wedding day, and one thing I've always known I wanted is a slideshow. I really enjoy making them, and I always enjoy watching them even though I always end up crying.

I'm not sure yet when we'll play the slideshow on our wedding day - Whether it'll be before the ceremony (my choice) or at the reception at some point (David's choice). I also want to make a slideshow of pictures of my Dad and I to surprise him with during our Daddy/Daughter dance. Our venue has the projector and screen that we can use, so I definitely want to take advantage of it. I made David's brother and sister-in-law L's slideshow and I think it turned out really well:



Everyone seemed to really like it, which gives me the confidence to make ours. I also made a video for David's birthday a couple years ago. I burned it on a DVD and made a cute little DVD case for it. It still makes me tear up! Watch it if you don't believe me about taking tons of pictures - We have even more pictures together that aren't in the slideshow! (Oh, and please ignore my voice in the beginning - I promise it's not that annoying in person.)



I'm not exactly sure yet what songs I'll use in our slideshow other than True Companion by Marc Cohn. That's 'our song' and has been for years! It's the last song that plays in the slideshow I made for his birthday. I have several other songs that I love, so if they aren't used in the slideshow they'll probably be used before the ceremony starts since we'll need at least 30 minutes of music. I'll probably use Brown Eyed Girl for the pictures of me growing up, but I think finding a song for boys' growing up pictures is so hard! Any suggestions?

Are you having a slideshow? Are you making it or are you delegating the task to someone else??

A New Take on Favors

One of the first things I knew I wanted to do at our wedding was make a charitable donation rather than give out favors. I originally thought that for a couple reasons: 1. David and I have both been closely affected by a couple specific diseases, and 2. No one keeps favors from weddings anyway and favors would end up being a waste of money. I have to say the 2nd reason isn't entirely true since I've seen plenty of cute favors, including CDs of the couple's favorite songs, matches with cute sayings, and adorable bags/containers for a candy bar. But after I saw Mrs. Taffy's post on Weddingbee about her favors, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. David and I could each choose a charity and then we'd give our guests the option of which charity they'd like their donation to be made to.

I've talked previously about my grandma and the fact that she lost her battle with breast cancer in December of 2005. Since I didn't end up finding a dress at Brides Against Breast Cancer, I knew I wanted to support the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation that the money from the dress sales goes to.



David has lost one grandpa and an aunt to different types of cancer, so his choice was the American Cancer Society. I think we're going to use either small tokens or possibly just circles of fairly heavy cardstock with our monogram (cut out with my circle punch that I haven't used yet!). I'm debating about attaching either some homemade truffles or a cookie or something, because who doesn't love more sweets?! If we do attach one of those things, the paper with the explanation will have the token attached to it somehow and will look something like this:



If we decide not to attach any sweets, I'll probably remove the 'Sweet Love' line from the top of it. I didn't want this to turn into an expensive project, so I looked for some vases/jars at Dollar Tree to use and found some that I think will work perfectly! I made a couple signs to go in front of each jar as well:



I'm also going to make scrapbook pages to put next to each jar. The scrapbook page next to the Brides Against Breast Cancer/Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation jar will have pictures of my grandma and I as well as an explanation of the foundation. The other page will have pictures of David with his relatives. I haven't made them yet, but will be sure to update when I do! I love this idea, because it still gives our guests a choice as to which charity they choose to support, but regardless of which one they choose, both are meaningful to us!

One thing I didn't realize is how many people don't agree with making charitable donations in your guests' honor. I had no idea that it was even controversial, but my mom and I picked up The Knot magazine when she was in town (because my brother and sister-in-law's photographer had an ad in it that had 3 pictures of their wedding!) and it was one of the opinion topics. Oh well, to each his own, right?

What are you doing for your favors? Are you "in favor" of charitable donations on your guests' behalf?

Beautiful Bridesmaids!

I mentioned in my post about last weekend's wedding progress that BM M found her dress! We kind of looked in Wichita when I was home a couple weekends ago, but didn't find anything. We didn't even really plan to go this weekend, but my favorite store in Lawrence is right next door to Chipotle, where we ate lunch, so I wanted to stop in just to look. :) She tried a few things on, including a super cute black dress and she ended up loving it! I love it too:



The best part is it ended up only being $29! I love a good deal, so I was very excited! I can't wait what all of the other ladies choose. BM S has been looking at a few different ones including this dress in black:


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And this dress from Nordstrom:





This one says it's "currently unavailable" which is unfortunate, because I want one for myself! I LOVE the bow in back!

I talked to my sister (MOH A) the other night after babysitting the kids for a few hours, and she said she's going to start looking. There was one she liked in Wichita, but couldn't justify buying (it was before I told her I was just going to have them pick out black dresses) but I'm sure she'll find another one she loves! I've always been drawn to little black dresses, so it's been fun helping the girls look for theirs. I'm so excited to see how they all come together!

Did you let your ladies pick their own dresses? If so, did you help them look? Or did you leave it entirely up to them?