Worth a Million Words

Deadlines Approaching...

Today marks the two month mark.  Exactly two months from now, I will be putting on my wedding gown and getting ready to marry my best friend.

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In the meantime, our RSVP by date is fast approaching.  Out of 108 invitees, only 34 have sent their acceptance RSVPs back.  I'm not relishing the idea of hounding our potential guests to see if they will join us, but it may come down to that.

Sad, but probably true

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Thinking about family

Now that the RSVP cards are starting to trickle in, I've had a chance to think a lot about the special people we will have with us at our wedding. I'm so excited that many of our family members are making the trip to Idaho to celebrate and support us.
 

Our niece Ella (one of our adorable flowergirls) and my new sister-in-law Dana and brother-in-law Darrell, pictured with us in the Rockies last summer.

Our furry ringbearer Ash, pictured sleeping in the living room.

Rich and his sweet mom Terese, pictured in Idaho a couple years ago.

My Aunt Linda, who is hosting our rehearsal dinner at her home, and my mom, who is hosting our Sunday brunch at her home (pictured at my childhood home in Boise).

My sister Bailey, who is my bridesmaid, and my brother Brock, who just wanted to watch the ceremony (with me at the Denver Nature and Science Museum last summer).

Most of my extended family on my mom's side.  We've only received one 'no' RSVP from all of the family pictured (due to the inability to travel to Idaho because of a pregnancy), so I hope everyone else will be there.  With just over two months to go until the big day, I can barely wait to see everyone!

The countdown continues in style

Bridesmaid Accessories

I love shoes.  All different kinds of shoes.  Heels, flats, hiking, running, work, boots, they are all wonderful to me.  So I've enjoyed searching for the perfect shoes for my bridesmaids.  Both bridesmaids have at least three inches on me, so I'd hoped to find them some nice flats to wear with their BCBG/Max and Cleo dresses.  Of course, none of the flats I've found match the level of formality of the bridesmaid dresses, so I started looking at (gasp) heels.

Macy's has these simple, dressy heels that I just love.  The color is subdued enough to go with the champagne blush dresses, but the metallic sheen makes them special enough to stand out.  I think these Bandolino heels would look wonderful with the dresses -- but I might just have to buy a pair for myself either way!

Pretty Papers

I decided early on that I wanted to do semi-DIY invitations for our wedding.  As in, about two years before Rich popped the question I decided this.  I found two boxes of invitations at Target on clearance years ago and snapped them up!  They were beautiful and classic.  Luckily my tastes have not changed much since then.

After a few printing difficulties (vellum paper does not absorb printer ink like regular paper...), we ended up with these lovely pieces of paper to make up our invitation suite:

(lf to rt 1st row: wedding website info, hotel info

2nd row: outer envelopes, cardstock, printed vellum)

(same as above, but now with sweet little maps I made)

(can't forget the stamps!)

To "make" the invitations, I lined up the holes in the vellum and the cardstock.

Then I threaded some iridescent white ribbon through the sets of holes once,

then back through again,

and straightened out the ribbon into a faux-bow.

Here is the final product - with our names and venue info blurred with Photoshop, of course.

These babies went out Saturday morning and we've already received four RSVP cards in our mailbox. Sending out the invites made everything so real!!

Here are a few action shots of me and Rich working hard away at putting everything together...

We're still smiling at least!

I'm marrying a comedian....

Our ringbearer supervising the progress.

Invites

After staying up late Friday night stuffing our invitation suite into the envelopes, we dropped everything off at the Post Office first thing Saturday morning.  Our friends and family have already started receiving the invitations and now we just have to wait for the RSVPs!

(wish I had the source!)

Maybe we'll even receive some creative notes like this in our mailbox!

I Love Stamps!

In researching stamps for our invitations, I came across the most wonderful thing.  The USPS is offering limited edition Adopt A Shelter Pet stamps.  The dogs and cats featured on the stamps were all homeless and all but one had been adopted when they were photographed. 

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Look how lovable these guys are!  They make me want to rush home to scoop up my own Rescue Pup.  The USPS is hoping to raise awareness of the need to adopt shelter pets.

Ok, sign me up!  So I headed down to my local post office only to find that the stamps will not be available for sale until April 30th.  April 30th?!?  But I wanted to use these adorable stamps for our RSVP envelopes and the invitations are almost ready to go out!  Not to mention, our RSVP by date is May 1st!

Slightly dejected, I decided to go for my second choice and the old standby for wedding stamps: interlocking rings.  Now, don't get me wrong, I think the rings stamps are beautiful and they will go perfectly with our invitation suite.

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But the Shelter Pets stamps would be an excellent tie in with our wedding favors (more on that later) and our honored ring bearer!  I think I'll just have to buy a bunch of the stamps on April 30th so I can use them on our wedding Thank You cards!

Mazatlan Bachelorette Party

A few weeks ago, I headed to Mazatlan, Mexico, for a wonderful bachelorette party with my best friend - my mom.  We spent five relaxing days on the beaches of the Pacific Ocean.

Posing on the Malecon that lays between Old Mazatlan and the beach.

Happy after a walk up the beach and a yummy breakfast under umbrellas on the sand.

View from the top!  It's nice to be upgraded to a top floor corner suite. We loved our 270 degree views of the ocean and the city.

Not to mention our huge balcony!

Hunting for special shells in the tidepools.

Another view from the balcony.

We chose to spend out time relaxing and getting massages on the beach instead of being adventurous and parasailing over the ocean.

Several Hobie Cats lived on our beach.  Love their gorgeous sails!

Me and Mom enjoying a fantastic day.

One of the hotel pools and the jacuzzi.

The famous Valentino's!

Another awesome day at the beach!

Amazing sunset from our balcony.

Thinking of my future hubby!

Search for the perfect (rehearsal) dress

I recently received a flyer from Express with a sweet pale pink/champagne dress on the cover.  The pale chiffon dress was knee-length and had pleats that looked like petals.

Unfortunately, it did not look like this on me...

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So...back to the drawing board.

Maybe I am just excited for Spring, but I am very drawn to the soft pastels in stores lately. Feminine party dresses,

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laser-cut satin,

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chiffon in soft blues and yellows,

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structured shifts in satin and jacquard,

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lace with shimmery rosette,

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glittery jewels and satin,

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relaxed bridal white,

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Or, perhaps vibrant jewel-tones in some of my favorite colors.

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So many gorgeous options to choose from.  I can't wait to try some of these lovely dresses on!