July Update - 46 days to go!

I had my first dress fitting last week in NYC.  My good friend and bridesmaid, Miranda Shields, came with me to get a 2nd opinion on the fit and make sure all looked good (and to make sure I stayed sane)!  The seamstress had to ask me to please take the dress off - I could have stayed in it for hours. :)   It's such a sparkly feeling inside to be wearing THE dress!  You all will definitely see that sparkle shining through me on September 1st!  Super duper excited!  Oh yeah!

Big props to my Maid-of-Honor, Kathryn, for putting together what promises to be an exciting bachelorette/bridal shower weekend.  Kathryn has done a great job coordinating the weekend and making sure everyone is on the same page with the planning.  I'm so pumped to spend time with the amazing women in my life before tying the knot.  Love you girls!  Thank you all for your work in putting that together so that we may toast my becoming a Colwell in UES style! 

I've already begun receiving messages of delight via email, text, and phone from friends and family who have received their invitation in the mail.  A big thanks to my mom for writing out all the envelopes and putting everything together!  It's so fun to see the invites packaged after all the cutting and gluing over the past month.  Even from far away, my mom has been so supportive and helpful in big ways throughout this process. Thank you, mom!

Now, onward to TheKnot.com (which has begun to haunt me in my sleep) where the next 10,000 tasks await me! 

Back to Wedding Land

It's been a while since I last posted, and so much has happened.  I had to take a couple of weeks off from wedding planning as I traveled to MD with my theatre company to open our first show of the summer season.  But I'm back at the arts and crafts now as the big day inches closer.

First of all, we have a new reception venue and it's wonderful!  A lovely couple who are members of the church where we are getting married is letting us use their property and barn.  Clay and I are so thankful for such a great find and can't wait to celebrate with our family and friends in this unique setting!  Finding a venue last minute was no easy task, but we ended up with a place even better than what we had originally.  Many thanks to everyone who pulled together to help us.  Crisis averted!  Here are a couple of photos to give you an idea...

The Barn at Horseshoe Bend

Road to Forever 

So the venue is booked and now I'm in DIY invitation land.  You can save hundreds of dollars by cutting and gluing the invites yourself.  Luckily, my go-to girl, Nina Kari, is also an excellent designer.  Nina's beautiful design will be used not only for the invitations, but also throughout our wedding.  

It's been a fun process!  I scoured five different paper stores in NYC looking for just the right shade of sage card stock and different types of shimmer paper - the price had to be right, too!  I finally found the perfect shade at Printicon  and ordered everything else including envelopes from Paper Presentation (coming in way under budget).  Once we had the design, Nina and I spent one Sunday morning printing, cutting, and gluing invites & RSVPs to card stock...

reception road block

I haven't blogged about the wedding in a while because everything was falling into place and we have both been so busy with work. However, yesterday we hit a major road block on the wedding planning front and I feel the need to document...

We found out we no longer have access to our reception venue.  Yep.  No venue.  I won't go into detail, but let's just say some people are simply not very considerate.  While upsetting, we are not letting this get us down!  We are so blessed with many friends in the area doing everything in their power to help us scramble last minute to find a place, including our awesome Minister, Rev. Matthew Davis!  It's not easy finding a wedding venue with only 3 months to go, but I have faith.  I know this happened for a reason, and am thankful this unfortunate situation occurred BEFORE we printed invitations and signed the contracts. I'm really sad to let go of the vision I've had in my head for the past 4 months, but I've learned a lot and we have a grasp on what we like and don't like.  I'm confident we'll still be able to utilize a lot of our decorations and ideas in the new venue...wherever it may be...

In the meantime, I should mention that James Maroldi from Dish Catering is awesome!  When we let him know the change in our circumstances, he was very understanding and is holding our date.  James immediately sent us several ideas for a new venue.  Check out DiSh Catering.  Here are pictures from some of their fine work...

Engagement pics

Nina Kari is an amazing photographer!  Here are samples of our engagement photos...

save the dates

Our amazing event planner/designer/photographer friend, Nina, has been working hard on ideas and designs for our pictures, save the dates, and invitations!  Our friends and family will be receiving her beautiful work through the mail in the near future, but I wanted to post a couple of the designs she did for us.  We ended up choosing a different postcard design for our save the dates, but these were great options I wanted to share...

engagement photos and more

So much is happening on the wedding front all at once, and slowly but surely everything is falling into place! 

Yesterday we had a wonderful time strolling through Central Park with our talented friend, Nina, as she snapped lots of photos of us.  Nina has a great eye for details, and made us both feel comfortable during the session.  We also stopped by St. Bartholomew on Park Avenue at the end of the day, just as it was beginning to rain.  Clayton's parents were married at St. Barts, so it was special for us to capture our own moment in front of such a meaningful place - on Palm Sunday! Enjoy a sneak peak of our photos...more to come soon!

the sparkle

I had my engagement ring cleaned for the first time today...it's extra sparkly!  Rings have never been my accessory of choice, but I have to say this beautiful sparkly thing on my finger makes me smile.  Every time the gleam catches my eye, it reminds me of how blessed I am to have found such an awesome man.  It's not about the diamond - it's a symbol of unique and lasting love.  

My fiance had my ring made for me by Michael at Little King Jewelry here in NYC.  They specialize in exquisite 21st century heirlooms, jewelry that is uniquely your own.  This ring is truly my own - I love it!  We will also be ordering our wedding bands there.  I would highly recommend Little King Jewelry to anyone looking for something different.  They just moved to a new location on Lafayette St and the store is lovely!

dress shopping: the perfect day

My wedding dress experience could not have been more perfect!

I started the day by meeting 2 of my bridesmaids for brunch at 44th & X in Hells Kitchen.  If you've never been, I highly recommend this spot for brunch.  It's super cute inside, delicious food, and the service was good even though it was busy! 

Our first stop was RK Bridal - a discount designer dress store.  RK came recommended to me by a co-worker, but I had no idea what to expect.  I've been apprehensive the past week just thinking about this day - not knowing how it would go and fearing I may not find what I wanted.  The rows and rows of dresses were overwhelming at first.  However, I came in with a clear vision (and lots of magazine clippings) and it all went really smoothly.  My girls helped me choose excellent initial options, and we even all loved the very first dress I tried!  What made the difference in my experience was my very helpful consultant, Olga.  Olga was precious and has been in the business for 23 years.    She saw what we were going for, left for a few minutes, and quickly returned with the most beautiful Watters dress for me (the only clue I will give away).  I simply love it.  The dress is exactly what I was looking for...simple and elegant.  The way they clamped the sample size dress on me was hilarious!  The order in my size was placed, and alteration appointments will be made.  Super awesome!

We cancelled the 2nd appointment and went straight to Flute (a great speakeasy style champagne bar) to toast our success!  Enjoy a few photos from our fabulous day...

the sea of white and static electricity

waiting for the appointment

where's robin?

these ladies are amazing

dreaming of the dress...

The dress.  Ohhhh THE dress!  You envision it from the time you start playing with Barbie dolls.  Except the vision changes from taffeta, puff sleeves, and ruffles to lace, strapless, and A-line.

That's a lot of dress!  Princess Diana and Charles were married in 1981, about a week before I was born.  Was I destined for a ball gown?  I think not.

the reception search

We were lucky to find our ceremony site early on in this process.  A dear family friend of Clayton's will marry us in his charming little church in Bedminster, NJ.

Lamington Presbyterian Church

The search for a reception venue hasn't been so easy.  We had several appointments with actual wedding venues, but none of them appealed to us.  We decided to embrace the countryside and set our sights on the outdoors for a more rustic party - I've always dreamed of a big party under a tent!  This part of New Jersey is beautiful, but it was difficult to find the right place to host our wedding.  Finally, we were offered this private property....right next to the church!  It couldn't be more perfect.

band stand

imagine the tent, green grass, and trees

There are so many possibilities for our special day!  I can't wait to see our vision come together over the next 5 months.  Lots of milk glass, mason jars, antique silver, lace, roses and wildflowers! 

catching up - color palette

I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog.  Let's start with the color palette.  I've chosen shades of sage, peach, and ivory with accents of espresso.  This may change slightly, but you get the idea.

My bridesmaids will wear sage and the flowers will include shades of peach, orange, and cream.  I envision something along the lines of this:

thingsthatsparkleblog.blogspot.com

fioreblossoms.blogspot.com

I never thought I'd enjoy wedding planning, but finding ways to make it your own is so much fun! I love this blog Elizabeth Anne Designs - great inspiration for rustic/vintage color palettes.

Recently I stumbled across a website called Weddington Way, where you can find just about any combination or color of bridesmaid dresses you can imagine!  It's perfect because the girls can choose from my favorite selections in a style and price range that suits their needs.  Also, everyone is spread out across the country, so getting together to try on and fit dresses isn't an option.  This way, the girls are able to enter their measurements and I can put their selections side by side to see the complete look.  I love this.  Here is an example I really dig:

vintage shopping

Last weekend I went vintage shop hopping in Brooklyn with my friend, Nina, who is also getting married this year. Check out her super cool blog Rocker Chic Weddings. Since we decided on a classic/rustic wedding with a touch of vintage, I needed inspiration. I've been scouring the blog-o-sphere for the past two months trying to come up with colors and ideas - it was time to get out there!

We started at JUNK in Williamsburg and quickly stumbled upon the. greatest. find. See below:

Unique idea for well wishes/guestbook

We also found several other treasures...

first post: wedding plans

I started a wedding website soon after Clayton and I got engaged, but quickly found I need an easier way for multiple people to be updated frequently on our wedding plans. So here we are! I am having so much fun planning and hope you will be entertained with our choices and ideas. :)