Custom Ring Dish

Look at this absurdly adorable Custom Ring Dish on Etsy. I don't foresee a need for a custom ring dish for the wedding, nor do I see room in the budget for something so adorably frivolous. That won't stop me from drooling over it for a day or so.

Maybe there's some way we can diy a similar thing... as a favor? For the shower? It doesn't look like it would be too terribly difficult if we adapted the design to be simpler.

Antique Pink and Sage

I made these two color palettes off of the two dresses one of my wonderful bridesmaids liked. They're both from The Dessy Group again, but this time in Sage.

The first palette was made second, and is a lot simpler. The bottom one is really just a collection of ideas and images that vaguely fit into the color scheme and that I like. The top one is quite a bit more selective.

Ideas? Opinions?

Soft Pink and Celadon

After yesterday's post inspired by 100 Layer Cake, I decided to pursue a similar color palette a little more. Everyone knows I love ranunculus, especially when they're soft pink with hints of green in the center. I also like the color of these Dessy bridesmaid dresses, shown in the color Celadon, which is, apparently, a name for a type of ceramic. Go figure.

Pink and Green

For the wedding's color palette, I've been wavering between Pink/Green and Blue/Green. As much as I love blue, I'm leaning strongly towards pink/green.

However, I hate hot pink. And I'm not sure if I want a vibrant pink. I would prefer a softer, paler pink if possible. I've even been thinking of a peach or coral instead of/or with a pink.

I've been on the fence about it, but after seeing yesterday's 100 Layer Cake post, I'm thinking that might be the way I'll try to go.

Guest Blogger, Snippet and Ink writes

I love playing with colors, seeing if I can make predictable color palettes new, or pairing colors that might not seem obvious together. Pink and green is still a favorite for weddings, and I imagine it always will be, but it can come across as saccharine and unsophisticated. Black tones down the sweetness, and makes it all look chic.

Palette: melon-mint green, pale grapefruit pink, black avocado.

Here are a few more color palettes that incorporate peaches and corals that I like.

A gorgeous collection of coral Etsy products.

A really cute celery and peach palette.

A nice peach, orange and aqua one. I don't love the orange, but the peach is really cute.

I also really like this spring-themed collection - the flowers are my favorite part.

All of these palettes are from The Perfect Palette, a delightful blog that has very pretty, creative wedding palettes.

House

Zach and I have been house-hunting lately. I blame my father and Eric, for the most part. It's not Eric's fault so much, because he actually needs a house. But my father? He think it's a good investment. Well, it is, except for the small little problem that I currently have two part-time jobs to accommodate the fact that I'm still in grad school.

However, the fact that it's currently a buyer's market, Zach has some money saved up and he has a good credit score and I have a borderline great credit score makes us actually not in a terrible place to buy a house. Not a big house. A starter house.

We've been looking a lot on Long Island because, for the most part, it's more affordable than Queens. Yes, the taxes are higher, but houses are mostly cheaper and have bigger properties. Towns like Elmont have some surprisingly nice houses that are relatively cheap and the school district isn't bad. We've even found a couple houses in West Hemsptead that are completely affordable, and the West Hempstead school district is apparently really good. I mean, that's not just my opinion, that's according to grades and reviews found online.

Save-the-Dates

I realized today, after looking at a few save-the-date promps, that I can't send them out until I have addresses, and I roughly finalized guest list, to boot.

Frick.

So I've spent the better part of the morning: A. brainstorming/editing save-the-dates, and B. Frantically trying to finalize the guest list, which is, apparently, no where near finalized.

I've done a lot of organizing though, and hopefully once I talk with the in-laws and my parents, I'll be able to actually finish this so we can get these save-the-dates out!

Hairstyle

Now that I have my dress, I've been thinking about the rest of my appearance. I know that I would like to wear my mom's pearl necklace. I'd like to whiten my teeth. I'm trying to get in better shape (omg when did I get flab under my arms?! That's so not okay!). Of course I'll get a manicure, and I might even try to grow my nails out a little so I don't look like a child.

And my hair. I've been trying to grow my hair out for a long time. Right now, my hair is longer than it has been in years, and by years, I mean since I was about 14. I've also been dying it with henna lately, instead of chemical dyes, because I would love if I could have my hair be the perfect shade of red with something natural, because that's just how I roll.

I've been thinking, and right now my ideal wedding hairstyle would consist of some sort of loose side bun with a flower in it.

My preliminary search for matching hairstyles has pulled up nothing that matches my ideas. However, I'm sure I've seen it done somewhere before, so... I'll just have to keep looking.

These are the closest ones that match the picture in my head:

I think I'd prefer a flower to a clip, but this one is very pretty, and I'm about 99% positive I want a real flower as opposed to a silk one with a feather around it, but this one is also pretty, so there you go. Both are from Theknot.com, go figure.

Flickr

I've had a Flickr account forever and a day. However, I've never had that many pictures on it. Recently I realized that I had no way of showing someone pictures of me without logging on to Facebook and scrolling through the pages of photos. That was not okay.

To solve this dilemma, I uploaded a lot of photos to a usb memory stick I carry with me most of the time, and posted many pictures on Flickr. There will be more to come over the next few weeks, because there's really only so many pictures you can post in a day.

To be honest, this did begin solely because Facebook was stubborn and wouldn't allow me to upload the pictures of my wedding dress in a timely fashion, while Flickr did. That's when I realized that the dress photos made up about a quarter of the photos I had posted, so I resolved to fix that.

The Dress!

This is it! For more pictures, check out my Flickr (Blogger is being frustrating and refusing to let me upload pictures).

Update

So as of today there are 400 days until our wedding. On one hand that seems like a lot, but on the other hand I know that it will go by quickly. I'm not worried at all though. Since Zach and I have had a long engagement, we've had a lot of time to work out details and what it is we want to have. We've booked the place. I've tried on dresses and gotten a good idea (or at least a much better idea) of what I look good in and what I would like to wear. I've looked at and discussed flowers a lot with my mother, and I'm sure that when we sit down to work everything out, the final results will be gorgeous. I'm sure we'll find beautiful dresses to compliment each of my wonderful bridesmaids. One of our friends is currently working on our save-the-dates, which we hope to be sending out soon. Overall, I think we've got a handle on this.

In the meantime both Zach and I are trying to get healthier and to save money. We hope to be able to put a down payment on a house next year. We went rollerblading yesterday with Sean and Shannon, and I had such a great time! I've never felt comfortable skating before, but yesterday we took it very simply and skated around an empty rink for a while. It was perfect. And the weather was beautiful.

Zach is taking his last locksmithing class tonight, and this will make him a certified locksmith. Pretty fancy, huh? I'm in the middle of my second semester at Hunter, and will be taking courses over the summer. I'm still planning on graduating May 2011, and I might have to do some finagling, but I'm going to do it. Then I can get a job teaching, hopefully in Queens or Long Island so I don't have to commute far. I'm going to be taking my last two teacher-certification tests in April and June, so I'll be certified to teach very, very soon.

I'm very excited about the future now. It scares me a little bit, but I'm excited.