Our Monograms {I Do Originals}

Thanks to {I Do Originals} we now have some gorgeous monograms to work with. I am especially happy with the way that they turned out. I got three monograms for $10, which is very reasonable. THANK YOU!!

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A Very Busy Weekend!!

Since it was so COLD and RAINY this weekend I decided that it was time to get some of my DIY projects done. I knew that when we got engaged that I wanted to send out save-the-dates (STD's) because I have a few out of town guests. Having something unique and eye catching was also at the top of my list, so I knew that when I saw Cyd's Bookmark-the-Dates that they were definitely something that I had to make (Thanks for the inspirations Cyd!). These little things were very time consuming but the end product was well worth my labor of love. I will also be including an informational car with our website information so that guests can keep up with wedding plans. So here they are, for full instructions be sure to check out Cyd's blog:









Next I made our card box. It turned out BEAUTIFUL! I purchased the hat boxes from a local chocolate shop, they were a little pricey but it didn't matter because I knew that they were exactly what I was looking for. I cut a whole in the two boxes and hot glued them together and added the ribbon detail along with some swarovski crystals to give it a little bling. I printed the "cards" paper on Pearl Stardream Paper and rounded the edges and slit lines in the paper for the ribbon to pass through.

And last but not least I made the letter for the cake table. I painted them with regular craft pain the glued peridot swarovski crystals around the edges to add a little femininity to them.

**ALL OF THESE IMAGES BELONG TO http://www.mydreamring.blogspot.com/ IF YOU USE ANY OF THESE IMAGES PLEASE LINK BACK TO ME, THANKS :)**

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:::Real Weddings:::Morgan + Jeff

Enjoy this beautiful wedding shot by Sam Dean Photography at the Vinton War Memorial (my venue!!). Thanks for sharing Sam, you rock:) Have a great weekend everyone!!

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Children and E-Pics

As you know my FH and I will be taking e-pics sometime in the spring. We have been together for 10 years now and we have a cute little family which includes our two little girls. My FH and I had a discussion about whether to include our daughters in our e-pics. We think that this is kind of our time, we rarely have pictures of just us. I think that we could make it a date thing, get lunch and have our pics taken without restrictions, like if we want to have some touchy feely pics. Some people are saying that we should include the girls in our e-pics. I think that e-pcs should look like e-pics not a family portrait. I love my girls don't get me wrong but we just had family pictures taken at Christmas so I am not sure that it's necessary to have them in our e-pics. What would you do if you were in my shoes? We have made the decision not to include them in e-pics but I still want to hear your opinions.

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::E-Pic Outfit Ideas::

I mentioned here that we won a super fantastic engagement session with a really talented photography company. While I admire their photography we have come to the conclusion that we like two other photographers in our area better. We are now in the process of making a decision between the two of them.

Although we didn't choose Enigma Pro as our wedding day photographer, we still want to take the free e-pic session that we won from them. Since we won the contest I have been going over and over in my head about what I would wear. I love the e-pics with the brides in cute cocktail dresses but honestly that is just not me. I love my pants, I'm not a skirt or dress girl at all. I do want to have something dressy and sexy so check out what I have come up with and let me know YAY or NAY!

This is a definate outfit I already have something similar this one but just wanted to show you::

Ok now for the dressy outfit::
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I plan on rocking some cute pink or red heels with these outfits.

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Our Cake

{I forgot my camera so I borrowed this picture from here}

Saturday was the big cake tasting. I was both nervous and excited. I was nervous for three reasons:

1. My FH and I had not come to a decision about the design of the cake, we talked about it the entire one hour drive there.
   
2. The cake baker does not have a shop or a website so I had not seen any of her work. But she is well known throughout the area for her beautiful cakes.


3. We had no idea of what her price ranges were.
   

My FH and I decided to include our girls on this meeting, because they love cake and we wanted them to feel a part of the wedding planning process. Upon arriving at Mrs. Wilson's cute little house for some reason when she answered the door all of my worries kind of went out the door. She is an older lady with the sweetest voice. She had her dining room all set-up for our tasting, with her portfolio, cake magazines and water. I knew right then that it was going to be a painless process. We talked for about ten minutes as I asked her the necessary questions, like how long have you been making cakes, to which she answered 15 years. She was so awesome and very professional, she offered some references (but I don't need them because we love her). Next came the actual tasting. We knew we wanted different layers for each tier with fillings and buttercream because FH and I just don't like fondant and we don't believe in paying for something that will be peeled off the cake, NO THANKS!

He gave in and let me pick the design I wanted and he picked the actual cake flavors. So we will have a four tier cake with the bottom layer being a 12" square chocolate cake with strawberry filling, next will be a 10" round layer with Lemon cake with raspberry filling, then an 8" round layer with white almond cake and strawberry filling and last our "anniversary" layer will be one that I picked a 6" round lemon layer with strawberry filling. This cake will be enough to feed 150 people at around $3.53 per slice, which was definately in our budget and her work is AMAZING!!!

So here it is, I picked this design because I love the scroll work that is throughout the cake and we will be adding chocolate brown ribbon with a swarovski crystal bling initial topper.

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We Like to Eat!

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When you mention the word food my ears perk up like a puppy! My FH and I love to eat and we are total food snobs. We have date night usually once a week and we will try a different restaurant every week. We have tried everything from Brazilian food to east Indian food, and honestly we like it all. So when it came down to what kind of food we would have at the wedding we knew that it had to be something great and it would probably cost us a pretty penny to have exactly what we want. We really want our guests to have a great time and talk only good things about our wedding and the food that was served (there will no rubber chicken going on at our wedding). We have lined up meetings with three of the best caterers in our area and I cannot wait to meet with each of them to see exactly what we can get for our budget. The only thing that we know for sure is in order to save a few dollars we will go with a buffet instead if a sit down dinner. We will have it set up on a serpentine table with lots of decor so the presentation will be fabulous. I think its standard at every wedding to have two entree choices, one starch, one salad, & one veggie choice, what more should we include? Is food a big part of your budget or are you splurging on something else in your wedding? If you have already chosen your caterer, if so what is the final cost per person? I would love to hear some ballpark prices from some of you.

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