Honeymoon Surprise

For our honeymoon, we are doing things a little differently! D is planning the whole thing and I won't find out until we get to the airport - I'm so excited! There are a lot of things about this wedding that he has taken more of a backseat in - a lot of the details, for example! So this is the one thing that will be all him, and let me tell you, it feels nice to drop the reins on this one and let him take over.

Before we decided that he would plan the honeymoon, we talked a bit about where we would like to go and what we expect to do on our honeymoon. We are lucky because I'm a teacher, and D will have time off between law school and starting work, so we will both be off for all of July, and have lotsss of time for a nice getaway. I'm hoping that wherever we go will be for at least 2 weeks, if not longer. My parents went on a 3 week honeymoon, which I think sounds amazing. We both love traveling, so the longer we go, the more we can see and do... it should be amazing!

So what is some of our destination inspiration?

Amalfi coast in Italy. Gorgeous!


How about a tiny villa in Tuscany? Read books, drink wine, day trips to the beach...


Santorini, Greece.


Ibiza, Spain

The Maldives

So as you can see, a lot of beachy inspiration! We want to relax and not feel pressured to do a lot of 'touristy' things, but still do some exploring and not be too lazy. Neither of us has ever been to Europe so it would be a great first trip together as a married couple. There are just so many place we want to go, I'm sure he will have a tough time narrowing things down. As it gets closer to the trip, he is going to let me know a few details, like what kind of clothes to pack and how long we're going for. He's already told me we are going somewhere hot, so Operation: Bikini is on!

As it stands now, nothing is booked, but D has been researching and planning and will probably book something soon. He is going to do a great job... I'm so excited!

How did you plan your honeymoon? Was it difficult to choose just one place?

Yes, I'm THAT Bride

So one of my other wedding tasks I did on the weekend was to make a newsletter for all of my bridesmaids. Oh, yes. I'm that bride. I tried to keep it light and fun, and really, I think it was necessary because we are pretty spread out and I wanted to update my girls on wedding plans and see how their doing with their dress selections. It was pretty easy to do and I think it came across okay. I tried to put some humour in it to keep it upbeat, and not too long.


I used a program called Print Shop Deluxe, which is basically low-tech, super basic free software I have on my Mac. Not sure where it came from, but it does the job well enough. So first I looked for some ideas online, for what to include in the newsletter and what I wanted to make sure was included as well. I also wanted to introduce the girls to each other (even though they already know OF each other and most have met) and exchange email addresses to make bridal event planning easier. Of course, stalking Facebook and finding ridiculous (but cute) pictures of all my girls was a must! Then I just added sections on attire, hair & makeup, bouquet suggestions (because I want input from them), and then some important info - dates of various events and a plea for crafting help.

All in all, I think it came together pretty nicely. I am just sending these out now, so I will have to let you know the reception I get with them. I'm not planning on making this a monthly occurrence, but I guess I'll see if anything super important comes up in the next few months and go from there.

Have you sent out a bridesmaid newsletter to your girls? How was it received? Do you think it is too over-the-top bride?

A Little Update...

At just over five months to go, the wedding plans are really starting to ramp up. Since I've been planning this for over 2 years at this point, I've pretty much come to terms with what I want and what needs to be done. I have checklists, inspiration pictures, different readings, etc. that I've come across over the years since getting engaged.

This past weekend, I sat down with my mom and MOO and went over all the projects that need to get done and what vendors still need to be decided on and booked. As we were talking, I could see my mom's eyes getting bigger and bigger, kind of taking on this glazed over, panic-stricken look. Give her time... she will come to terms with it just like I have!

So my upcoming projects in the next few weeks are faux-flower initials and finalizing what I want out table layout/centrepieces to look like, and start acquiring pieces. And here we go again!

Inspiration for the flower initials

So, a few questions:

Has anyone made these flower initials before? How do you make them without having them look cheap (like, because they are fake flowers)? Is it bad if I just use a double layer of carboard to use as the base of the letters, and then affix the flowers to that, and then paint the backs so you can't really tell it's cardboard? I just can't fathom spend $20 - $30 on wood cut-out letters when I could DIY for a lot cheaper. Also, I'm thinking mixing white and yellow flowers, and then using black or grey ribbon to hang them. Cute, right?

Okay, now on the the tables. I am going to try and describe what's in my mind and try to get some feedback on what it will look like. (Yeesh, this is so hard!) Okay, so our tables are square, and I want to have black, floor-length tablecloths with a sheer grey overlay (not covering the whole table, just a square in the middle - not sure what it's called!). For our centrepieces, I am thinking a mix of yellow and white flowers (but grouped by colour, not mixed) in short, silver vases, surrounded by lots of different sized white candles in clear vases. Whew! What do we think? Does that sound like a cohesive look? The dinnerware will all be white or silver, and for the napkins I'm thinking a nice bright yellow. Let's see if I have some pictures to show...

Overall room inspiration (oh, the lanterns!)

Mix and match flowers

Lots and lots of candles

So that's where my head's at right now. I guess eventually I need to make some decisions! It's just so much more fun to look at all the pretty pictures and put of making actual decisions!

Did you have trouble combining all your inspiration into one cohesive look?

** Also, sorry about the absence! Things have been crazyyyy around home, but I'm back! Hopefully there are still some of you reading out there! xoxo

The Shoe Saga Continues...

So I've been stalking every online shoe retailer I can think of, looking for inspiration and for the perfect wedding shoes. Today I found these babies:

(Source)

They are super close to my original inspiration here, but I'm just not feeling it. Don't get me wrong, they are pretty cute, but not only will these babies put me at just about the same height as D (who's 6'4") but I will probably trip my way down the aisle in them. And forget dancing all night!

What's a girl to do? Any yellow/black/white shoe inspiration for me?

The Proposal

So I realized that I haven't shared my proposal story yet, and it's a good one (in my opinion!), so prepare yourself...

Let me set the scene. It was 2008, and D and I were just coming off a year of living in Japan. We spent the year teaching English, and it was a year of many firsts. First time living away from home, first time living together. It was amazing. So, our time in Japan was coming to an end, and we packed up our apartment and decided to spend our last week in Tokyo before heading home.

View of Tokyo from Odaiba

The first thing we wanted to do in Tokyo was to climb Mt Fuji. It was something we had been planning all year, and although we hadn't necessarily 'trained' for it, we had been mentally preparing for the long hike since deciding to attempt the climb. (Seriously... climbing Fuji is pretty difficult, and every Japanese person we told said we were crazy, and we had friends who had tried and failed many times. Yeah... intimidating). So we prepared ourselves, bought climbing supplies, and bought bus tickets, and Operation:Fuji was ON!

Getting ready to climb. How sexy are we?

So we climbed. And climbed and climbed. Based on advice, we timed our climb to start at night to get to the summit for sunrise. The climb itself is around 8 hours, so we started at 8 PM to give ourselves lots of time. Little did I know, the whole time D has something very special in his backpack! We probably picked one of the worst times to climb, but we were determined to make it to the top. It was pouring rain the whole time, and totally miserable (hence our rain coats). Even though it was August, it was freezing, but as we started hiking, it was hot so we were sweating, but it was cold because it was raining. So yuck!

Hours and hours and hours later, we were making progress. We had reached the summit, and even though the sun had already risen (it took us a while to get there) it was still cloudy so we couldn't really tell what was happening. Suddenly, the clouds started to part and blue sky peeked through. We did it!


By this point, it had taken us 10 hours to climb the mountain. We had already been up since the previous morning when we traveled from Tokyo to Fuji, so we were going on 24 hours. I was sweaty, tired, hungry, cold, and a little bit sick from the altitude, so I didn't want to do anything except sit in the little huts they have at the top and eat some miso soup. Not a happy camper. Of course, D had other plans. He went out to explore to summit (I later found out he was 'scoping' locations) and came back and tried to get me out of the hut. I was so out of it, I told him to go ahead and enjoy it without me, I was too tired, I promised I wouldn't be upset that I missed it, etc. He finally convinced me to get up and go with him, so I did.

We walked to the edge of the mountaintop and just enjoyed the view. It was amazing! We took a ton of pictures, and enjoyed the warmth of the sun that was finally starting to shine through. We were above the clouds but below another level of clouds, which was so weird. But still amazing. While we were enjoying the view, D started acting all lovey dovey and a bit out of the ordinary, but I was so out of it myself, I didn't really think anything was up. By this point, he had put the ringbox in his pocket, and was ready to go. Finally, he took my hands, got down on one knee, and said some of the most sweetest things. Of course, I can't remember. But of course, I said yes! And believe it or not, I didn't even cry... and I am a BIG crier. I think it was because I was so tired and not feeling great, and it didn't really hit me what was actually happening.

So happy!

I think it was such a perfect way to propose and it's definitely a great story that we will always have. It was a great way to cap off our year in Japan, and I definitely earned that ring! After a 10 hour hike, in the pouring rain, through sweat, tears, and just overall yuckiness, I deserved that ring! I wonder if I had known he had that ring in his backpack if it would have made the climb easier? Not sure...

And best ever, we kept the engagement a secret because we were going home in a few days, so we didn't tell anyone. When we finally got home, we had a HUGE entourage of people waiting at the airport - all of our parents, my grandparents, an aunt, some brothers and sisters. Seriously, ridiculous. So we came out of the doors, and everyone started cheering (well, not really cheering, but you know...), and then they stopped, so we were kind of awkwardly standing there, and I just blurted out 'We're engaged!' It was such a funny way to tell a big chunk of our families, and a great memory!

Anyways, if you made it through this marathon post, thank you. It was kind of a doozy! Tell me your proposal story, I love them all.