Wedding Wednesdays: Wedding Blogs

I love being engaged because I can relate to my brides. I too, am planning a wedding and I know how tough it is to make decisions about your big day. I mean hello! You are reading the blog of the girl who changed her wedding colors 3943947 times until her fiance finally said "We really need to stick with one because we need to set up a meeting with a florist soon!" Easy for him to say, he won't be holding a bouquet ;)

Let's be honest, planning a wedding isn't the easiest thing in the world. So many decisions to make, plenty of flowers to choose from, and we can't forget the most important part...what flavor will the cake be? ;) I know for me, the biggest challenge so far was picking out colors. I spent hours and hours online looking at inspiration boards on wedding blogs. I know for a fact that my sister spent hours and hours online looking at inspiration boards as well. I have proof if you'd like to see it. EMAILS galore! But besides having those close to you help, one tool that has helped me out a lot with planning and inspiration are wedding blogs.

I don't know if you remember, but a couple of posts ago I blogged about finally deciding on our colors. This happened one Sunday afternoon. Chris was taking a nap and I was going crazy on Style Me Pretty. I went through pages and pages until I stumbled upon a fall inspired affair by Custom Event Group. It hit me like a trolley car on California street and I knew just by looking at the photos what our color palette was going to be. Ever since then, I haven't gone crazy with colors in my head. (Thank you Style Me Pretty!)

Another favorite blog of mine is the Wedding Chicks. Here you'll find everything that is pretty. Pretty, DIY, and pretty DIY. I love love love this blog and I love the two ladies that run it even more. (Hi Jocey and Amy!) I did a workshop with them in January, and they are fabuloso! One DIY in particular that I love from the blog are the DJ request cards. For brides who don't want just a clipboard with a piece of paper for song requests, these cards are just for you. I know I love them. Plus they say "Hey Mr. DJ, Play a song for me!" Fabulous right?

Besides the two blogs I mentioned above, here are a couple more I love. I check these blogs daily to find inspiration for my wedding, or because I just love anything wedding related :) And to my brides reading my blog, if you haven't gone on these blogs...go now! Pretty please :)

Green Wedding Shoes

Ruffled Blog

Lolliblog

100 Layer Cake

P.S. Pictured above is the Modern Bride Survival Guide Book. LOVE it!

Wedding Wednesday: Venue

This one time, I promised that I wouldn't show anyone what my wedding dress looked like because I wanted everyone to be surprised. I swore this while I was in it. Then, this other time I ended up sending at least 12 people the picture of it. I officially suck at keeping promises to myself.

So tonight, when I was trying to decide what little portion of our big day to share, I realized that I don't want to share anymore details about our wedding because I want people to be surprised. But knowing me, in 2 weeks, i'll probably share with you what our favors will be, but it's not my fault that I'm so excited. So excited that I just have to share with the world ;)

Anyways, tonight I thought I'd share our venue. Our little gem of a venue located on a hill in Sonoma. I remember the first time Chris and I ever went, I headed straight for their wedding table set-up and I thought to myself "This would be an incredible place to get married" And I'm so happy to have that thought come true!

I took this photo during my first trip there :) But this is only a small part of the place. You should see the view, our reception area, the barrel room, and everything else about it. I love it, and I can't wait to get married there! Almost 9 months left to go!

Happy Wednesday!

Wedding Wednesday - Colors

Shame on me. Actually, Double shame. I'm sorry that I didn't blog last Wednesday. I'm even sorrier that I didn't blog for an entire week. Gasp! Trust me, I'm punishing myself for my lack of blogging. I'm cereal! I've decided that I'll only eat one cupcake every two months. Or maybe one cupcake a month. Whatever I choose to do, just know that it's truly a punishment. Not for my body because that's actually a blessing, but for me.

And moving on to our scheduled program...this week on wedding wednesday, colors! That's right, colors. I've decided to blog this today instead of introducing who's in my bridal party because I changed my mind about colors way too many times. I figured if I blogged about it, I won't change it because it's in writing. Or typing. But for real, I am in love with what I ended up choosing and I wouldn't trade our final colors for anything in the world.

Through endless search for inspiration, I found a little fall themed gem on Style Me Pretty. And oh my my, it is pretty! If you click on this link, you'll see just what I'm talking about. Creams, Chocolate Browns, Bronze, and Greens. Absolutely to die for, and so beautiful that I could cry.

You see, Chris and I originally wanted to have a barn wedding. A countrified wedding outdoors, with reception in a barn, and photos with cows. Ok totally made the cow thing up, but it sounds cool. Anyhow, we didn't find the perfect outdoor venue with a barn so we chose a gorgeous winery nestled on a hill in Sonoma. It's perfect, and I absolutely love our venue. But because I love country, outdoors, live cows, and fall, I wanted to bring just that to our wedding with our colors. I wish I could take a picture of the vision in my head to show you what our wedding will look like, but you'll just have to wait :)

What I do have is a picture of myself in a green shirt with my future hubby. I figured that will work since green is one of our colors ;)

Happy Happy Wednesday!

Wedding Wednesdays: Bridal Party Dresses

I love my bridal party. A ton. They are my girls for life. Times eternity. Next week, I'll introduce them to you for my next Wedding Wednesday. But for now, I thought I'd share with you what they'll be wearing.

I thought long and hard about this. It was either choose ugly dresses to make myself look better ;) or choose fabulous dresses for them to work it in. And of course, since I'm such a little angel, I chose fabulous dresses! They're so excited about it, and so am I!

My gorgeous bridal party will be wearing Two Birds Bridesmaids Dresses.

Two Birds Bridesmaid Dresses are chic, classic, and oh so lovely! The thing is, it's only one dress. But it's one dress that bridesmaids can wrap 15 different ways so that it looks like a different dress. Ariane Goldman is a genius for designing such a fabulous dress. It's one size fits all, so everyone looks and feels beautiful. Perfection!

I know my ladies are going to love their dresses. The best part is that they can shorten it and wear it again ;)

Wedding Wednesdays: Something Blue

Let's face it. I'm 120% girly girl, maybe even more. I squeal at the sight of cute cupcakes. My heart is happy when I see cute bows. Striped ones make me happier. Ruffles make me and my heart excited. Sex and the City is my favorite show. But, Shoes. Shoes are my love. To me, shoes are the equivalent of cupcakes in a non-edible form. You get the point right? LOVE.

When I saw the blue Manolo Blahnik's that miss Carrie Bradshaw wore during her city hall wedding with Big, I died. A little piece of me died and went to shoe heaven because they were just so fabulous. And come on, I love all things fabulous. So much that sometimes my mother calls me fabulous. So after watching Sex and the City Movie over and over, plus the entire boxed set...I've decided that I wanted my something blue to be my shoes.

Below are my newest pair of fabulousness in shoe form. They're blue. They're high, and they have ruffles. They match perfectly with the sapphires in my engagement ring (another reason why I want my something blue to be my shoes) I won't be wearing these on my wedding day, but I am on a search for the perfect pair of blue shoes to wear on my big day!

But who knows, maybe...

"The Ultimate Single Gal, Gladys Jem will be married in Manolos to San Francisco Personal Trainer/Writer, Christopher James Allen come fall."

Happy Wednesday!

Wedding Wednesday: The Dress

First things first, I am not going to show you a picture of the dress. That would just be so stupid of me. If I wanted Chris to see it, I would just take him to Bridal Galleria and try it on for him to ask for his approval. But it doesn't work like that. He is not allowed to see it until November 19th, 2010. Some things are just worth waiting for ;)

Instead, I'll share with you the story. Earlier this month, Bridal Galleria announced a Jim Hjelm Trunk Show. When I received the email announcement, I immediately emailed my bridal party for a "let's search for my perfect wedding dress at the perfect jim hjelm trunk show" meeting. Ever since I got engaged, I have been stalking the Jim Hjelm website and have fallen madly in love with the dresses. I told myself that I'd have a Jim Hjelm wedding dress. No questions asked.

But I forgot. I forgot that sometimes, some relationships just don't work out. By relationships I mean, Jim and I weren't clicking. It was sad. I almost broke down right then and there. In the fitting room. In front of my mother, Hailey the consultant (best consultant EVER!), Sarah, and my Sister. I was disappointed when I realized I wasn't going to rock a Jim Hjelm dress on my wedding day. But you know what, when one door closes....Another one opens. And that other door is called Romona Keveza.

Romona and I clicked. We clicked a couple of times in fact. Many of the dresses that gave me the butterflies were Romona Keveza. One in particular was this stylish gown with an art deco design that made me feel so fabulous. Its from her Legends collection, and it is beautiful. So beautiful that I could have married myself. I seriously would have walked the miles to City Hall and married myself that day. It was just that good.

*photo from InStyle magazine

My heart was set on this dress. I wanted it. My mother loved it. And trust me, my mom made a lot of funny faces during the 20 something dresses I tried on :) Then Hailey did the unthinkable. She brought in one last dress for the heck of it. She's all "Here's one more, you don't have to try it on. But if you want you can!" And of course, I did. I mean HELLO, I love wedding dresses. I wish I could wear one everyday. So I just had to try it on. And party people, when I tried it on... It gave me this magical feeling and it whispered sweet nothings to my body. I think I heard Spice Girls "Two Become One" in the background when Hailey zipped it up. Just sayin ;) I think I also screamed something along the lines of, "Yes! I said Yes to the Dress!" Please don't judge me. I was excited.

I loved the dress I was originally going to get, but I am in-love with the one that I ended up getting. Who would have thought that I'd find THE DRESS that cold day in December. I am glad that Jim Hjelm and I didn't work out. It was for the best. I can't wait to walk down the aisle in my dress, and for Chris to see it!

Lastly, I have my parents to thank. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be wearing my dream wedding dress on my big day. Thanks Mom and Dad for making the trip out there to help me find/get the dress of my dreams! Love you both!

As for photos of the dress, you'll just have to wait until late November to see!

Happy Wednesday!

*Next week on Wedding Wednesday: My something blue!

Also: Future brides in the SF area. Make sure you check out Bridal Galleria when searching for a wedding dress. It's just lovely. Make sure to also ask for Hailey. She is the best consultant evaaa!

Wedding Wednesday: The Cupcakes

They're sweet. They're cute. They are fun size like myself, but better. They are CUPCAKES. Everyone knows about my love affair with the cutest cakes in all the land. In fact. If I had never met Chris, I would probably marry a cupcake. That my friends, is true love and devotion. But because I did meet Chris, I get to have the best of both worlds. And all I gotta say is that it's a sweet, sweet world.

For our wedding, Chris and I have decided to nix the wedding cake. Instead, we're going for my second true love. Cupcakes! Yep, cupcakes. An endless tier of cupcakes. Ok not endless, but there will be a ton. The lady at Sift where we had a cupcake tasting last month, said that 1 person averages about 1.5 cupcakes. But she clearly doesn't know me well enough. Because 1.5 for me isn't going to cut it. Especially if i'm diggin the flava flav. Dontchaknow?

We've decided to go to Sift Cupcakery for our Cupcakes. The flavors we've decided for our big day are as follows:

Pink Champagne- Fresh Raspberry Cake w/ Champagne Frosting

Ooh La La- Red Velvet Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

Snickerdoodle - Vanilla Cake w/ Cream Cheese Frosting Covered w/ Cinnamon Sugar

My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Yes, it's 9:25 and I want cupcakes. I'm a cupcake-a-holic. If you can't find me on my wedding day, I guarantee I'll be at the cupcake stand. Just sayin.

Happy Wednesday!

Wedding Wednesday - Our Photographer

At Thanksgiving, Chris cousin Michelle mentioned her friend's blog which had a Wedding Wednesday feature. And I thought to myself, Wow! Why didn't I think of that? This girl gets major cool points for being so cool.

So in honor of Michelle's friends coolness, I am going to do my own little wedding wednesday feature. In which I will share with you details of my wedding which will be in exactly 338 days. Yes, my fiance and I count down. We're in love like that. But besides that, I'll also be sharing other wedding details which I hope will be an inspiration to future brides. So here it goes, my first wedding wednesday.

I've thought hard and long about what detail I'll share with you first. And I've come to the conclusion that because I am a photographer, I'd share with you who will be capturing our special day. It's still a bit unreal to me because when Chris and I got engaged, we knew who we wanted to photograph our wedding. At least I for sure did ;) We just didn't think it would actually happen.

The fabulous photographer who will be spending our big day with us is Jasmine Star. You should have known who it was after reading the word fabulous, but it's ok. I forgive you. Everyone and their mom knows how much I adore Jasmine's work. I've followed her since the day I clicked on her name on wedding cabaret because it sounded cool. And that she is, and more.

The short story: Chris contacted her behind my back and asked if she was available on November 5th, 2010 (Our first initial date) And she was booked. So Chris lets me know of this breaking news and I go online searching for other photographers that we could possibly get in contact with. I even posted a blog post here asking people for suggestions. But somewhere between all the searching, I texted Chris and I said "We need to have a talk, I really really really want Jasmine to be our photographer." So then. Over salads at Plutos, we came to the conclusion that we had to have Jasmine photograph our wedding. Right then and there he busted out his iPhone and sent her an email asking her what available dates she had for November. And that my friends, is how we decided on our date for November 19th, 2010. We are the only people I know that have decided on their wedding date based on the photographer's availability. 100 Brownie points for us.

Chris knows just how much I love photography, and how important it was for me to have a photographer that I really loved to capture our big day. Chris loves her too, so we are definitely excited to have her and her husband JD with us in Sonoma for our wedding. We know our photos will be nothing but fun, fresh, and fabulous ;)

*This photo was taken when I attended Jasmine's workshop in November

Happy Wednesday!