Introducing our wedding invitations

The invitations have been sent and I'm so happy that they were a hit with our guests. Hearing their feedback made the whole process so worth it. I was really anxious when I mailed them out because I had spent so much time trying putting all the details together. I love them and wouldn't change a thing about the process or the final product. Enjoy!

I Heart Them!

I'm so excited about our wedding invitations. I am glad that I had them designed instead of buying a pre-designed invitation suite. They suit us and our wedding vibe so much and I love the experience of printing and assembling them myself. It's given me the chance to tweak the design and style myself and I feel so connected to the process. I can't imagine doing it any other way. Can't wait until they'll all done and I can mail them to our guests, I hope they love them as much as I do!

Tomato or tomato : Twenty Ten or Two thousand and ten

Our wedding is only a few months away. I will be walking down the alter with sand on my feet. But until then a debate that is spreading across the countryside. Tearing families apart. Pitting friends against friends. What side will be victorious and have there legacy be forever solidified throughout the century. The Twenty Tenners or the Two Thousand and Tenners. Well I am firmly in the Twenty Tenners corner. Who will join me.

See ya in Jamaica Man!

Jarvis

The Clock is Ticking...6 Months to Go!

It's been a long time since I've written anything, life has definitely gotten in the way. But now that my Master's thesis is done and I'm officially done with graduate school I can find a bit more time to update everyone on the wedding planning. Things are definitely going to switch into high gear pretty soon, since we're going away there hasn't been much for me to do, but now that the wedding is only 6 months away I have to start thinking about the reception, food, flowers, music, and all of the other little details that go into making the day beautiful and special. Eventhough the planning has been pretty light I have gotten three major things out of the way.

1. I bought my dress! Yay! It's a beautiful flowy strapless gown from Wtoo Brides that I can't wait for everyone to see. I absolutely love love love it!

2. The invitations have been designed. My focus for January is to print and assemble them so I can get them in the mail by the end of the month.

3. My niece and I found her bridesmaids dress today! It's a gorgeous strapless sapphire blue dress from David's Bridal. We both fell madly in love with it and she looks fantastic in it. Check it out here.

I can't believe that time has gone by so fast. We went from 18 months to 6 very quickly and I can't wait to get to Jamaica and get this party started. Promise to keep you updated on the planning as we get closer and closer.

Love...

Jenny

Invitation design school

Yay! I have the design for my invitations and I'm ready to get started! I knew when we decided to have a DW that I wanted to try and DIY as many things as I could. I'm not creative at all so I had no idea how I was going to be able to pull this off. Enter Weddingbee, my absolute favorite wedding blog. Through reading this site I found this amazing online store where they only sell handmade items (that includes designs and logos that people have created themselves). I stumbled across my invitation designer, Carla, during one of my daily Weddingbee checks; she made invitations for her own wedding and had since been asked to make invitations for her friends. As a result, she decided to open her own shop on Etsy. I ventured over and loved what I saw. Her designs had a really fun, casual vibe that I loved. This wedding is all about having a good time and her invites were perfect. Since I was her first official customer she gave me an amazing deal and agreed to design my invites so that I could add my own touches, print, and put them together myself. I'm so happy I got in on the ground floor and snatched up my invites in the early stages of her shop b/c as some of you may know wedding invites can be pretty pricey. Luckily, I get to control costs by doing all the leg work myself. I can't wait to post pics of the invites once they're done, but that will have to wait a few months, I want our guests to be surprised ;) but here are a couple pics of Carla's work. Enjoy!

Dress Shopping 101

Dress shopping has been so much fun! I must admit that the idea of putting on a wedding gown made me really nervous, but trying on all those beautiful gowns was so much fun. I've had two dress shopping excursions so far and both have been very successful. I'm getting closer and closer to finding the one and I've been daydreaming about all the contenders (I have a few that I'm currently in love with). In my heart I think I know which one is meant for me, but I'm not quite ready to commit. I think I need one more day of just shopping before I make a final decision.

Trying on dresses has really made the wedding come to life for me. We have less than a year to go and it's becoming more and more of a reality as time passes. It's been hard for me to get into the bride mentality since there is so much that I can't do until days before the wedding when we get to Jamaica, so the dress shopping has really helped me to connect with this experience and start to visualize what I want our big day to feel like. I can't wait to try on more dresses. I wish that I could show you pics of the ones that I'm drooling over but as a consolation I will show you a few pics of a dress that I liked a lot but unfortunately it got bumped out of the race. ;)

Paying homage to where it all began..............

So.....It's been a while since I blogged but the truth is, I haven't really been thinking about wedding stuff that much lately. I've been so busy with work that I just haven't had the time, but once school is out and I'm officially on SUMMER VACATION the real planning will begin. First on the list will of course be dress shopping which I can't wait to do.

Despite my lack of wedding related activities I have created a new inspiration board. I've been collecting pictures along the way of things that inspire me and catch my attention and I've found that I have been really attracted to blue and orange, which is fitting since those are the colors of our alma mater, U of I. So to pay tribute to the place where Jarvis and I fell in love, our wedding will have my interpretation of those two colors: Caribbean blue (to match the water, of course) and tangerine (not orange, tangerine!). Here is my new inspiration board, ENJOY!

(Click on the picture for a better look)