The dress is in!

I came in on Wednesday last week and luckily I was heading up to Bemidji for the shower (so fun!).

I tried it on and the lady said, "Ooo, we should have ordered you a smaller size." I lost a little weight and now the dress that fit perfect in the hips when I tried it on, should be at least one size smaller. Time for alterations.

I'm going to have "bust cups" sewn in, so there won't be a need for a bra. It also needs to be hemmed (even with my tall heels it's too long) and it will need a bustle.

I'm lucky to be marrying into a very helpful family, most of whom live in the cities. So, Anthony's Aunt has graciously offered to alter my dress, which is a relief, because having the alterations done in Bemidji would be an additional headache that I don't need.

Reception Moodboard

Pennant garland, dahlias, dancing, pies, apples and embroidery.

I've already embroidered a large hoop with our names in a heart like this to go on top of the fireplace mantle. My mom has graciously offered to make the pennant garland and we went to Sweeney's the other night to measure the areas we want to hang it. It's finally starting to be a little cohesive and not just notions floating around in my head.

Thinking about wedding bands

We eventually need to pick out some wedding bands. We could just go down to the jewelry chain stores and choose something generic, but I'm really loving these options from etsy.

Honeymoon Plans

Thinking about honeymooning in the Smoky Mountains, catching some Needtobreathe in Nashville and some beautiful views.

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The Invitations are Out

They've been out for more than a week now and we've pretty much finished the wedding website! The RSVPs are trickling in, via email, snail mail, phone and our RSVP form on the website. We may have given people a few to many venues. (The best part is the songs people are requesting.)

I gave Anthony some examples of invitations that I liked for inspiration and he created the most awesome cards that convey our style and set the feeling for the day.

Inspiration:





The Result:
He designed them to fit two per 11x17 sheet of paper and so they would fit in an envelope available at Office Max.



Anthony purchased the paper from Anchor Paper at their retail storefront in Burnsville. His company, EAC, was gracious enough to let us print the invitations on their color laser printer. Anthony set them up in InDesign to coordinate printing front and back. Then, he took them to Kinkos to be cut with a big scary guillotine.

At home, Anthony meticulously folded each card, as I stuffed and addressed the envelopes. He had also printed our return address to make things easier. $40 for postage, $16 for 100 envelopes + $40 for a ream of 11x17 gloss cardstock = $96 invitations. $1.20/invitation. Not too shabby. And we have plenty of leftover paper, so maybe we'll use it for thank-you cards or Christmas cards.

We also collaborated on the website, julieandanthony.com:


My Groom is so Great.

Is it tempting fate to use the words eternity & forever?

I'd love to have some kind of graphic poster print with a sweet saying to set on the mantle (see above) at the reception. But since so many people get divorced, is it poor taste to say that we'll be together forever when some of the guests couldn't hack it?

On the other hand we've both agreed that even if we are miserable with each other, ain't no divorce happening. So, guess maybe it'd be OK.

I want to hang some kind of festive banner across the fireplace too. I'm leaning towards a cute home-made string of pennants, but balloons and words are sweet too. Or we could do something cool with our monogram.





Also, love this "how they met invite". That would be a fun thing to display for people to read. Anthony and I had oddly parallel lives and I like displaying something like that instead of a photo slideshow. It could go on the great built in china hutch that they have.



These friend and family geneologies and "how-we-know-each-guest" trees are fun too. But probably better with assigned seating and table numbers.



I always love a good clothes line and this is a great way to display photographs.


On the table decoration front, I've settled on Apple green to go with my dark purple dahlias. I plan to fill tall, straight vases with pretty granny smith apples along with perhaps a small, low arrangement of garden flowers, preferably dahlias. And maybe a couple votives?


Finally, I love this embroidered canopy (probably a chuppah) and hopefully I can embroider some pretty fabric like this to hang across the front of the communion table at the ceremony.

Dahlias!

I wanted some yummy strawberries. So, I was looking through the list of pick-your-own berry farms in Minnesota and came upon Two Pony Gardens. They sell over 150 varieties of large garden "pick your own" DAHLIAS! And they use and support sustainable gardening practices. They are West of the cities in Long Lake. They don't have a website or an email, so I gave them a call and asked about the availability of flowers in the last week of September, specifically dark purple ones. My fingers are crossed, but this looks like an awesome option for flowers.

What other colors should we have?

Big white dahlia in my hair?

Pink dahlias for maids?