How's married life?

The first time someone asked that question I didn't know how to respond! How can you condense the newlywed experience adequately into one word or even a sentence? Exactly what do you tell them? I always feel a bit awkward answering this question. Home life is such an intimate side of ourselves, especially for private people like Johnny and I. (This statement coming from someone making a post that all of cyberspace will read. Eyes rolling.) Privacy aside though, married life is pretty spectacular! It has been full of tender moments, trimmed and flickering candles, soft rose petals, chocolates, and small violins playing low romantic music in the background. Cue to the child "Ewwing," and you have a pretty good picture of how married life has been treating us! Living life together in full marital bliss has been one amazing adventure wherever we find ourselves! Which just happened to be at South Smyrna Beach in Florida, where we were vacationing this past weekend! It was like being on our honeymoon again; holding hands, togetherness, and being all twitter pated like two love birds (that's a Disney reference for being crazy in love.).... Hahaha...at least, that's how we were most days outside of the 9am-5pm "Happy Cloud" window when Johnny wasn't learning how to paint "Happy Little Trees" and I wasn't enjoying the life of a beach bum. This is also a subtle reference to Bob Ross and our real intention for vacationing at the beach.

Bob Ross was an oil painter on PBS in the 1980's. He had a show called "The Joy of Painting" where he taught people how to paint an oil landscape in 30 minutes or less. He became very memorable not only for his painting, but also his humorous phrases and big hair. There is a Bob Ross remix on YouTube that is really hilarious and illustrates these characteristics. His style of painting and method of teaching have also become pretty popular and are taught at the South Smyrna Beach studio. This studio offers a certification course to anyone wanting to become a Bob Ross instructor, which interested Johnny, because he wants to expand his painting skills to other mediums. It takes three weeks to become certified as an instructor and participants are in class five days a week from 9am to 5pm.

Now you understand the "Happy Cloud" window.... and I know what you are thinking, "That's a lot of time to spend apart." You're right, but I handled it like a newlywed champ.... and probably put the best pouting two year old to shame when faced with the pending separation anxiety.... we're talking feet stamping against the floor, little fists flailing in the air, leg anchoring, and the full water works...okay that's a huge exaggeration, but it was fun to write :) In truth, for a couple that work opposing shifts we spend a lot of our time apart, which has become normal for us. I'm not saying I like it, but I do think it makes us spend our time together in more quality ways! Such as breakfast while we were on vacation. I got up early almost every morning to walk with Johnny, hand in hand, across the street to his class and eat breakfast with him at the "Wake Up Café." (Cute name huh?) For those of you who know me well, you know that getting up early, usually before 10am is a real act of interest and love. Breakfast at the Wake Up Café was our way of spending quality time in the morning. This was such a cool little café too! The restaurant was family owned and sort of sprang up from nothing. The people in there were so nice and attentive! They were oriented to sponsoring starving artists too by displaying the photography of local high school students. I ended up buying one that I really liked! If you are ever in South Smyrna, this is definitely a restaurant to pop into for breakfast!

Of course, when we finished breakfast, there was another moment of separation anxiety, which was only made better by a goodbye kiss and my recon. mission from Johnny; to find our evening entertainment and the pursuit of hunting through the shops along the beach. (I exaggerate only a little bit this time.) The shops on Flagler Avenue will certainly be getting more of my attention next time. I took my job seriously and my investigations led to there own mini adventures in the evenings when we were together. (I'll save those stories for another day though.) We really wanted to see dolphins while we were there, but we didn't have the best luck, even when we went to a restaurant called "Dolphin View." You would think with a name like that you'd see at least one dolphin, but I chalk it up to false advertising when night #2 at the restaurant was a bust. :(

Everyday, I took a break from my laborious shopping and exploration to walk back over to the studio and have lunch with Johnny. I loved his enthusiasm over his class and listened attentively to all the exciting new skills and challenges he was experiencing. Sometimes I'd even get to see his handiwork displayed on more than just his canvas. Thank goodness for baby wipes and that oil paints don't dry or he would be needing some new clothes. (Personally I don't think he needs them, but society might get distracted. :D ) For all the jesting though, I'm very proud of his work! He learned a new painting every day he was there and each one turned out beautiful, even wall worthy! Of course, he still has two more weeks before he completes the full certification course, but that just means there will be more future beach bumming and shopping for me also!



Our View from the Hotel

I won't lie... I now understand the hype about Florida and the attraction of living at the beach. Our hotel was right on it and the view from the balcony actually faced the ocean. It was a very serene and peaceful view from our perch above. We had plenty of sun and a constant breeze to temper the heat. I think we actually were graced with weather cooler than the usual thanks to the Tropical Storm blowing in from the Atlantic. The temperatures stayed in the 70-80's throughout the week and even rained on a couple occasions...the nice thing about Florida storms is that they stop as soon as they start.


Our stake and claim!

Florida isn't without a few drawbacks though... I don't know if I could part with the hills and mountains of Tennessee. The flatness of Florida is a bit overrated and don't get me started about the sand fleas. Apparently, they loved me and my O + blood, because I was their constant snack when we walked the beach in the evenings. I learned partway through the trip that "Skin So Soft" is supposed to work wonders as a deterrent. (I'm tucking that nugget away for our future trip.) The sand fleas aside though, the beach was very pleasant. We played in the surf for most of our first day there and I'm sure we stuck out as tourist for it, because we must have spent hours jumping into the waves as they rolled in and we were knocked over by them. SO MUCH FUN! And of course, no trip to the beach as a couple is complete without a heart in the sand with your initials! We claimed several areas on the beach with hearts, because I'm also a bit of a perfectionist and had to have the perfect shot. Johnny humored me (or was just really patient!) I don't care, because the perfect picture now graces Facebook as my cover photo! I've included it here with a few of my other favorites from the trip.



Sitting in the lap of a Shrimp Gentleman. His wife is
gaping in the background!

Another of my favorite pictures, was taken just outside this restaurant called Dixie Crossroad. The picture is of me sitting in the lap of a shrimp I fondly named, "Gumbo." Isn't it cute? Johnny always likes to try out the local foods when we go places, so we took the opportunity to meet up with some of our Floridian friends and try out this restaurant they recommended for its authentic Floridian food. What's awful is that I don't even remember what I ordered, only that it was good. I blame the stimulating conversation with our friends and the distraction of the big fish/turtle pond outside the restaurant for my lack of memory. The restaurant actually provided pellet food to guests who wanted to feed the fishes and turtles. That too was lot of fun! Johnny humored me again and let me throw in his fish food too. Unfortunately, it was too dark for decent pictures. :(



This is only halfway to the top!

The last story and pictures I'll share (since this blog has become quite long) will be from our field trip to the Ponce Inlet Light Station. A lighthouse still operating on the Florida coast and open to the public for tours. Johnny and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to experience this piece of history and scaled all 203 spiral steps of "Certain Falling Death" to the top for its view. I love this picture because of the cool effects of the stairs and our flip flops (which they advised not to wear.) My prized picture however, will not be of the view from the top of the lighthouse (which was very beautiful), but below of Pirate Johnny! Aarrr, Matey! I simply couldn't resist posting this! He put the hat on in the gift shop and I had to snap a picture! This has to be one of my favorites from the trip, because it perfectly illustrates the type of relationship that we have, which is constant play, kidding, and fun! He is always doing something to make me laugh and I love that!

So I guess if anyone asks me, "How's married life?" These pictures are pretty evident of how it's going; adventurous, comical, romantic, and wildly fun!

The wedding is over, but the blog is not!

I just wanted to make a quick note to say that I'll be returning in August with more regular posts!

The weeks leading up to the wedding were too crazy for me to regularly write! Considering the honeymoon, getting moved into one place (since we both have houses,) returning to work, wrapping up home projects, writing thank you notes to our wedding guests, and doing anything else that might have fallen through the cracks, I just don't have time to post regularly until then.

 

However, now that our wedding is over, I have a unique, retrospective opinion about planning the wedding that I would love to share! I have enjoyed keeping this blog and chronicling my bridal tale about becoming a Brown! We were so blessed to have our friends and family to celebrate with us at our wedding and were thankful for their presence in helping to make our day so memorable! Thank you for your cards, gifts, love, and well wishes! Each of you means a lot to us!

I am also looking forward to sharing a few of our pictures in future posts that were taken during our wedding and honeymoon! We took the picture below while honeymooning in Las Vegas! It was taken at the Grand Canyon, out on the skywalk! Truly incredible view 4000ft up in the air!



Trial Hair and Makeup at In the Buff

"You're just the kind of client I like,"

my stylist at In the Buff exclaimed. Her statement came just moments after I confessed not having a clue how to wear my hair for our upcoming wedding (okay so I had a vague inkling of an idea.) I'm not exactly the most imaginative with my hair, which usually ends up in a bun on the top of my head or pulled back in a ponytail. This has been my style it seems for years and I have been saying for years also that I would do something with it when the opportunity arose...for weddings, graduations...the list goes on and on. Unfortunately my hair has never ranked as a high priority during events, despite my desire for it too, which is a crying shame, since my long and thick hair is a dream of endless possibilities.

Fortunately, for my upcoming wedding my priorities have shifted and I have placed my hair and its styling a bit higher in the ranks than it's been before. I'll admit this is partially because Johnny hinted at wanting to see what my hair might look like professionally styled or curled. The ponytail and bun have been an exhausted fashion statement around him. So I did not wish to disappoint him, which is how I ended up in the styling chair at In the Buff with my stylist Katie for a trial run this past Tuesday. I had visited their booth briefly at the Pink Bridal Show in January and it was like this light bulb going off in my head with me doing a giddy dance! I can be a girly girl with beautiful hair and flawless makeup without all the stress of trying to do it myself! So there I sat, staring at my reflection in the mirror with their pretty peach salon garb wrapped around my shoulders, ready for styling magic to happen!

I had already undergone a makeup session with Erin, who had applied airbrush makeup in natural tones. I wouldn't trust myself with this task, since I have about as much experience if not less applying makeup to my skin as putting my hair up in an up do. I have never worn makeup and usually preferred a natural feel to my skin. I also really question this venture, because I have a tendency to touch my face and become teary eyed at emotional events. The tears will no doubt fall at my wedding and I do not want raccoon eyes. So although the airbrush makeup is beautiful and it doesn't cover up my freckles (which Johnny adores and was protective of the moment I mentioned makeup) I may decide later not to include its application. I did however, seem to enhance the beautiful masterpiece that later became my hair and complete my finished look.

For my hair, the possibilities were endless and I needed to narrow a particular style down to a few pictures that I liked. After scouring through hundreds of pictures on Pinterest (really there is no other site for inspiration) I had come up with a couple styles that I really liked and that earned an approval from Johnny (whose opinion mattered the most.) I personally really love braids, braids of any kind really and simply adored the picture shown above. I even like the pink, but I could never dye my hair like that all at once and some people might never get over the shock factor. Another favorite was the windswept and wreath look in the following picture to the left. I could see that loose and carefree hairstyle going very well in the green outdoor gardens of our wedding. I love the free falling tresses of hair and the garland of flowers adorning her crown. Although, I liked this look, I could also imagine it being a very hot style to wear if it gathered against my neck in the June heat and humidity. It's windswept look might even be a very genuine look too, after three hours of in between time from the end of my appointment until the wedding. With this thought, I kept complete up dos more in mind.

My inspiration finally came from a picture in a magazine. I do not recall which magazine it was now, but I snapped a photo of it with my iPhone and kept coming back to it thinking, "My hair could look good like that." I really liked the wisps in the front and the part through her hair, oddly enough. The hair in the back was not pictured, which led me to the picture on the right that I found on Pinterest. These two images shaped my final style later and allowed the wheels in my stylist head to start turning as I gave her the vaguest of outlines to follow, "I want something like this in the front, it pulled off my neck, and curls. Whatever you think looks best!"


 

I wasn't too picky, which earned me the status of being the best type of client to work with and a very happy one too! 

Because nearly two and a half hours later, I watched a gorgeous masterpiece consisting of two ponytails, 73 bobby pins, and a ton of hair spray take place and transform my hair! It looked absolutely amazing!

Johnny thought so too! I let him inspect the style when he saw me after work and he couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear! So I'm thinking he approves (wink wink.) So this is it - my hair style for the wedding! The day of the wedding, we are going to pull a few more tresses of hair out at the front and shorten them a tad, but other than that, we have our wedding hair!



Wedding Registry!

Let's go shopping!!!

So a couple weeks ago I visited my best friend Haley in Huntsville to work on my wedding registry! Now I know that most couples do their registries together, however, shopping through home décor and cookware seems more of my type of leisurely activity than Johnny's. I'm sure that Johnny is grateful too, for sparing him the giddy high that this girl gets while shopping. I'm even worse with Haley, since we both delight in the prowl of shopping for the newest intrigues. Also, apart from being excellent company, Haley has a wealth of knowledge to impart on anything related to cooking, which made her the perfect partner in crime to help me load up my registry with lots of goodies for an otherwise kitchen and cookware poor moi.

The aim of my registry was to rectify this of course and prepare my kitchen for cooking once more. I love to cook and before I moved to Chattanooga I cooked all the time. Sadly, however after moving several times in the last few years around Chattanooga, I have lost most of my cookware, utensils, and appliances. Johnny has had about the same luck during his moves. The few times that either of us have attempted to cook at our houses, we have been thwarted by the necessity of some little thing, whether it was a can opener on one occasion or a pizza pan the next. Sometimes we even had the item, it just happened to be at the other's house. Yet, another less worrisome dilemma is that of duplicates between the two of us, but that problem has a much easier solution; we'll just keep the best of the two and yard sale or donate the other. That being said, I know the kitchen is definitely an area that is lacking a few cooking essentials that I have placed on the registry.

My other aim for the registry was to simplify the clutter. Over the years, Johnny and I have both collected an eclectic assortment of sets of utensils. An example that comes readily to mind are measuring cups. I alone have about three different sets, each missing one or the other and married together to make a complete set of measurements. I can only imagine how nice it will be to have just one complete set that will fit neatly within themselves and diminish the clutter in the drawers. So it's easily imaginable how these small incidences and considerations contributed to the majority of the items on my registry. In fact, I kept the items predominately in the kitchen and cookware department.

For my registry, I decided to register at Belk's. There are tons of places that couples can register and it really depends on your preference. The three stores I considered the most were JCPenny, Belk, and Kohl's. I actually really like the bedding and furniture departments at JCPenny and I even like the diversity of cookware at JCPenny. However, several of the stores have closed in this area and I didn't want to establish a long term registry with a store that might not be around in the future. Kohl's future was less uncertain, but their selection ended up being less diverse when I visited. I had some experience already with Belk. Last year I helped Haley run around the Belk store with the not so little registry gun and gather up items for her wedding registry. So I decided that I'd revisit Belk for mine. Haley was also able to give Belk a positive recommendation based upon her own experiences. It's important to know that items on the registry can be purchased easily if you need to complete any sets later. I also like the quality of the items sold at Belk. You know what they say about quality, "You get what you pay for." Belk's only fault is that they are always busy! The lady manning the registry desk had a couple people in line when we arrived. Luckily, you can register online, so we walked about the store and simply wrote down items that interested us.

Among the items that I wanted to add and that I'll discuss briefly, were pots and pans. There are half a dozen kinds of pots and pans that make it difficult to choose one particular style over another. There are stainless steel, copper bottomed, and non-stick pans. I finally decided on a set of T-fal stainless steel copper bottom pans. My understanding is that a copper bottom distributes the heat quicker and more fully across the bottom of the pan. The only caution is that it usually requires a lower temperature. The non-stick pans were tempting, but I was too afraid they would be easily ruined by Johnny or I using a metal spoon stirring the contents that I decided against it. Other essential cooking instruments that we included were a sauté pan by Calphalon and a porcelain coated Dutch oven stew pot by Cooks Tools. We also added a few items of corningware and bakeware, but I had some of those items already.

For organization, I fell in love with the Oxo brand! I love the design and ingenuity of most of their products. A few of their noteworthy items are the storage containers that have pop tops, angled measuring cups, box grate, and salad spinner. They also have kitchen utensils like pizza wheels, can openers, and locking tongs. I registered for an assortment of those items too.

When I envision my future kitchen, there are several desirable kitchen appliances too. My mom has an immersion blender and Haley demoed her food processor for me when we got back to her apartment to register everything online. When I considered the amount of time these appliances saved during the preparation phase of cooking they earned a spot on the registry. A kitchenaid mixer and a bread machine are the other two items that I've had an eye on for a while. The kitchenaid was one of the first items on my list and it comes in robins egg blue too! Just look how cute it is!

Photo taken from Pinterest and contributed by
Rachel Best on Flickr.

Originally, I didn't want to register for china. Johnny and I have had a tendency of eating out a majority of the time and the times that we do eat meals at either of our houses (which is usually cereal or soup,) it is usually with paper cups and bowls. Of course, when it's just the two of you, not having to do dishes trumps trying to be fancy, even it there are only be two sets of dishes to wash. Johnny and I also live life of the go a lot. Between both of our jobs and the activities of ArtsyU we find it easier to eat out than cook. We have both expressed this "norm" part of our lives to change and actually sit down in our own house and share a home meal. This is perhaps my thoughts behind deciding to register for wedding china. When I lived in Huntsville I did entertain more often and it was nice to share a meal with family and friends on occasion. I would like to start doing this again.

That being said, I am also very practical. When I registered for wedding china I wanted it to be functional. I also didn't want anything too expensive that would cause me to go into convulsions if a piece was accidently broken. Buying something less expensive also meant that Johnny and I could complete it ourselves if we didn't get the entire set. Bearing these points in mind, Haley and I dismissed the fine china and decided to look at the causal china. One design in particular seemed to catch my attention as I looked it over. It was an ivory/off white color with a design that wasn't too ornate and could easily be matched with other odd pieces nicely. The design was by Mikasa and called Italian Countryside. It also happened to be microwave and dishwasher safe, but the best part, was that it was on sale and not terribly expensive. I decided that this set of china would meet my expectations and registered for it.

Photo taken from Pinterest. Contributed by Dillards.

Since then, I discovered why this particular set of china seemed to attract me. I was speaking to my mom about my registry and showing her several of the items, when she remarked how familiar the Italian Countryside pattern looked. In fact, she noted how similar it was to the set of china that she gave me and my brother last Thanksgiving. She had found a few odd pieces at a thrift store in both an off white and sage green color. My brother ended up with the green and I took the off white home. I had put them up in my china cupboard and hadn't really thought about it until mom mentioned its similarity. So I checked the name on the pieces that she had given me and wouldn't you know, it's the same as the Mikasa Italian countryside that I registered for at Belk. How cool is that? :) I couldn't believe it! Now if I had any doubts about getting china before, I certainly don't now. It appears, it was meant to be! What's great is that I already have a set of three! So thank you Mom!

In the end, I believe our shopping spree to be successful. I found lots of goodies for the registry that will both help me become more functional in the kitchen chaos that it is currently and to reconnect with a prior skill and love, cooking, which I know Johnny will appreciate! It was also a lot of fun catching up with Haley and acting like a couple of girls compiling of list of dream items for my future home! When I got home, Johnny and I reviewed the list and added a few more additions. For the most part, he loved (okay, that's a strong word, he liked) most everything I had picked out and was happy that I had enjoyed myself. Although, he did laugh that I registered for china when I told him, because he knew I originally wasn't going too!

Wedding Splurge: Photography!

I am all smiles over my photography deal! :)

This post is a bit behind the times, but I am so excited to announce that we have found our wedding photographer. For those of you who know me personally, you know that picking a photographer has not been an easy decision or process. Many of you have probably gathered from previous posts that Johnny and I have been planning our wedding on a budget with the aim of creating a beautiful wedding without procuring a hefty debt in the process.

Establishing a budget is often the first step when planning a wedding. It helps couples to set limits and to allocate funds into categories that are high priorities for them, to help them focus on the areas they want to splurge on or simply cut completely altogether. For some brides, they want to focus on a gorgeous dress, the perfect venue, or spend the majority of the budget on the food. For me, the area I was most willing to splurge a little extra money toward was our wedding photography. Besides our own personal memories on our wedding day, pictures are the best way to preserve those little moments for the future years. However, it's important not to take the idea of splurging too far either or to spend a disproportionate amount on something. In order to keep from doing this, we placed the payment of said photographer to come out of the funds I contributed to our budget. This would guarantee that I ended up with what I wanted and that I'd be careful in my selection. You are far more discerning when it's your own money paying for something! Believe me, the search for our photographer has proven that!

Once we established who would pay for our wedding photography, my next step was to examine the expectations I had for our wedding photographer. Of course, I had very high expectations. I wanted a professional photographer, someone who did photography as their livelihood and not simply on the side. I wanted someone who did this type of work a lot and had lots of experience, who wouldn't be experimenting with ideas or trying out new functions on their camera at my expense. In other words, I didn't want a point and shoot amateur who just got adobe photo shop on their computer. I wanted someone with talent and a good eye, who could produce beautiful pictures and knew how to enhance them in the post production phase. I also wanted all these things at an affordable price...which I didn't think was too much to ask for.

That being said, until I searched Google, I wasn't aware there were so many photographers in the Chattanooga area that specialized in wedding photography. There were still more to choose from on Facebook and in the bridal magazines. I was immediately overwhelmed. I also realized it would be difficult to eliminate photographers based on posted prices, since a high majority of websites excluded pricing altogether, requesting instead my email address or phone number before it would be sent. I found this to be rather irksome, especially when I didn't receive timely responses back from my inquiries. I'm sure it's a clever method of collecting your email address and phone number for future advertising. and demographics. Whatever the reason, it appeared to be a common practice among photographers online. It was refreshing when I ran across websites with published prices, because although I was willing to splurge on photography, I still wanted to keep the expense less than $2000 dollars, preferably much less. I wanted to stay within a reasonable budget without sacrificing talent for the sake of it.

Ultimately, it took about four weeks of diligent searching and patiently sifting through online portfolios before I contracted our wedding photographer. There were several portfolios that caught my eye including: Daisy Moffatt, Our Ampersand, and in particular Innamorata, whom I was strongly considering. During our tasting in March, I noticed one of their wedding albums on display and simply fell in love with their photography style. I also came to find out they were very intimately acquainted with Grandview as a venue, because they shot weddings up there frequently. Unfortunately, their quoted price fell outside of my comfort zone and left no room for anything extra like a casual engagement session, which I knew Johnny placed a higher value upon. We both agreed that causal engagement pictures would likely be more displayable if given as a gift.

I had just about resigned myself to the fact that I would be going with Innamorata and giving up on engagement pictures when I ran across a website called BrideRush. It's a site similar to Groupon and Livingsocial, which provides its consumers, who are Brides in a Rush with discounts on wedding services. There were all types of services available on the site, from floral shops to DJ's to makeup artists, but there was only one photographer listed for the Chattanooga Area, Sergio Plecas Photography. He offered a deal that provided one photographer for 12 hours for just $1000, which originally had been $2000. Well, immediately I looked over his wedding galleries and posted engagement sessions and was impressed and excited that they were quite good! I especially liked his engagement sessions, because his photography style had captured candid moments shared by the couples. I felt assured that he'd do a great job capturing the essence of Johnny and me as a couple!

I was immediately interested in the deal, but there was only one problem....the deal on BrideRush wasn't exactly to my choosing, (I only had Grandview for 8 hours,) so I emailed Sergio about modifying the deal a bit so that it included a second photographer and an engagement session. Sergio quickly responded and was agreeable with modifying the deal for a little extra. Sergio will also spend a couple weeks after our wedding in post-production with the pictures to touch up color and enhance the pictures. He then provides me with a print release which allows me to share them on Facebook and blogger and print as many as I want. A print release is very important if you want to freedom to be able to print your wedding pictures yourself. Without a print release, you have to go through the photographer to have prints made. This can often be very expensive.

So although this post is a little late, I still wanted to share this post with all the people who knew of my painstaking search. Now on to more fun projects like compiling photos and inspiration for our wedding photography! I can't wait to start working with Sergio on this very subject! I've compiled several pictures from Pinterest that I want to modify for our wedding! I'll close with one of the shots that I have in mind!

Image via Denise Bailey on Pinterest

 

This is a shot I took of Grandview's patio. I'd love
to do something similar to the picture on Pinterest!
Can't you image it?

Florist versus Fresh Market

"How much?!"

I'm sure my jaw dropped and my eye's must have gotten really big when the florist said the bouquets, boutonnieres, and arrangements would cost $1200 - $1500, because she went into great detail regarding how that price was figured. I don't think I heard much more of her persuasive speech, because in my mind I was still screaming the number and hearing it echo about in my cranium. I had always known flowers were not cheap, but I guess I was naïve to the fact that they cost that much, especially for what I had proposed, which was fairly minimal. I had proposed 4 bridesmaid's bouquets, plus my wedding bouquet, 3 corsages, 8 boutonnieres, and 8 arrangements for the tables. I know that sounds like a lot, and I'll agree that the boutonnieres, corsages, and bouquets were probably the majority of the proposed cost, but I couldn't wrap my head around why the arrangements would cost so much... All I knew was that the amount of said arrangements and flowers was not going to work with my budget.

Well, I'll admit, I left the florist a bit disappointed, resigning myself to the likelihood that I would probably not use a florist for what I wanted to do for the wedding. That realization also squashed the probability of me being able to get any of the flowers that I had originally wanted, namely peonies. If you are unfamiliar with what peonies looks like, click the following link to Pinterest to a picture of one http://www.pinterest.com/pin/543668986239143279/. Unfortunately, peonies bloom early in the South, usually around Memorial Day and would be here and gone by my wedding date in late June. My only glimmer of hope had been to have them ordered, which didn't seem very likely now. Instead, I resigned myself to the notion of using seasonal flowers and my second favorite flower, the iris, which would be in bloom throughout May, June, and July.

Bouquet wrap from
Michael's

So what does someone do when they are on a budget like me? I turned to my favorite person to console my sudden misery and pull my dashed little dreams out of the deep chasms of despair in which they had fallen, my fiancé, Johnny. (Okay, so I exaggerated for dramatic effect.) One of the things I love about Johnny is his creative mind and ability to think outside the box. He's great at pointing you in a direction of potential resource, which is my opinion of the Fresh Market. Can I take a moment and rave about the Fresh Market? That store is so cool! I can't believe I haven't been in this store before now! I was even more excited to find out that they have fresh flowers all year long. Granted, their seasonal flowers change throughout the year, but they have roses all year long. So I can say the colors, red, pink, and white are pretty much a guarantee to be able to accessorize with around the décor at the wedding. The Fresh Market also has affordable ready made bouquets or the option of having one arranged from the stock on the floor for the cost of the flowers (which were not expensively priced) and a $5 labor fee. So I'm thinking five of the ready made bouquets, some ribbon around each of the bouquet's stems, and a bouquet wrap from Michael's and my bridesmaids and I have our flowers for a $100-150 dollars. The flowers for the centerpiece arrangements will cost about the same if the Fresh Market arranges them or less if my wedding party puts them together. I'm pretty confident that my wedding party would be able to arrange the flowers for the centerpieces. I don't think what I have in mind will be too complicated. I'll just need to determine if it would be worth our time to do it versus paying the Fresh Market to have them arranged. I'll decide that later. The lady at the Fresh Market said she only needed two weeks notice.

Doilies from Michael's, frames from Hobby Lobby
and Garden Ridge for $10 and the a sampling of the milk
 glasses vases I purchased at the antique stores.

Inspiration picture pinned to Pinterest
 by Madison House Designs

Each centerpiece on the tables will consist of four items: a paper doily, a milk glass bud vase, an ornate picture frame, and a small candle. If you are unfamiliar with what a milk glass vase looks like (you've probably seen them, just didn't know what they were called) I have posted a picture. Milk glass comes in all different styles and sizes. Older vases have very tiny mouths and can only hold one or two flowers. The newer vases actually are a bit wider at the top and can comfortably hold 3 or 4 flowers and some small sprigs of greenery or babies breath. It is the later vases that I had in mind. The paper doilies can be found at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I bought mine from Hobby Lobby and got 6 for $2.99. I'm still trying to locate a small candle for the centerpieces. I think some silver glass would be really pretty with the white and black. I located enough of the milk glass vases yesterday. I found several vendors on Etsy with bulk listings for milk glass, but unfortunately, glass is heavy and fragile, so it costs a lot for the shipping. Instead of purchasing them off of Etsy I decided to put some money back into my local economy and shopped around at several of the antique stores around the Chattanooga area. After visiting three shops I found a total of eighteen vases of various patterns and sizes and paid only $87.36. The math works out to $4.85 for each vase which turned out to be a far better deal than Etsy. My inspiration for the centerpieces actually comes from multiple pictures on Pinterest, but this picture posted by Madison House Designs best illustrates the design I have in mind (the color scheme will just be slightly different and I'll be using more bud vases.) Now you can probably understand why my jaw dropped when the florist gave me her price. There wouldn't be a lot of arranging for a bud vase and if I supply the vases, that's another cost I shouldn't have been charged.

Picture from Etsy vendor showing
 that at most, only
 3 or 4 flowers can fit per vase.

In the end, I think it's to my advantage to not use a florist. If the Fresh Market had not been an option, there was always the vendors at the Chattanooga Market during the summer too. The vendors there are also great contacts and would have been able to supply us with flowers the day before since our wedding would be Monday, the next day. I'll admit, there are some advantages to using a florist though, particularly that you can choose the flowers and colors, knowing exactly what you are getting. I'll be playing it by ear with the Fresh Market. Sure, they have a good idea of the seasonal flowers, but we'll be going with what is available. Some people might find this type of arrangement too nerve wrecking. Lucky for me, I'm pretty laid back and can be spontaneous. It's also a good thing that white and black go with everything! (Yep, I knew that would be helpful later!)

Probably the best part of our trip to the Fresh Market was hearing that sometimes in June, they get a shipment of peonies, but it depends on late frosts and the weather affecting their crops. So I have my fingers crossed that the crop doesn't get frosted and I end up with my peonies after all! Wouldn't that be awesome!

Bridesmaids Dresses!

Little black dresses...

Not exactly my first choice of color, as you might have speculated from my earlier posts regarding pastels and spring colors, but I must admit there are a myriad of reasons that make it a logical color choice for a wedding. First, although I like soft pastels and cool colors, I can't argue with the fact that black has been a forever timeless and elegant color. It's slimming qualities make it a great choice for anyone wanting to flatter their figure. Secondly, the shades of black are easier to harmonize if everyone ended up getting a different dress style, unlike trying to harmonize various shades of blues, pinks, greens, or other colors. This was a major deciding factor when I considered that all my bridesmaids lived states away and that there was the potential of having a different dress style for each girl with little means of comparing dress fabrics. Another factor was that the color black can go with any other accessory color and white. Third, I wanted to buy stylish dresses that my bridesmaids could potentially wear again and black is perfect for: black tie affairs, dates, or God forbid funerals. I didn't want anything that screamed, "I'm a bridesmaid dress!" You know the ones I'm talking about? For the record, I really hate the tradition that bridesmaid dresses have to be ugly in order to not outshine the bride. I think that way of thinking is incredibly juvenile and silly. As beautiful women whom I adore, I want my attendants to look their absolute best not just at my wedding, but again if they should reuse their dresses!

So the ugly dresses aside! I spent a couple months sorting through images on Google and Pinterest and in bridal magazines for the styles that I liked. I found several evening gowns at Macy's and on Edaydress that were quite elegant, as well as some great suggestions from my sister Michelle, that were at JJSHouse. Two of my favorites are pictured to the right. (On a side note, most retail stores have a "Little Black Dress" section, which I also found helpful.) I must admit however, I was terribly disappointed in general with the cocktail length dresses that are in style right now. Perhaps, it's just me, but everything seems a bit short for cocktail length. I'm certainly not a prude, but I don't think anything shorter than mid thigh should be worn at a wedding. But that's just me...

Once I had a general idea of the look I wanted for the dresses (which was quite broad), it was time to go shopping.  I'll use any excuse to go shopping and the search for bridesmaid's dresses seemed like as good a reason as any! The occasion also supplied me with the perfect excuse to meet up with my best friend and bridesmaid, Haley. So I enlisted her services (which wasn't very hard) in the pursuit for dresses and we delved into our task at hand. My little sister Michelle, (my maid of honor) was currently deployed and overseas, so I let her off the hook this time! (Wink wink!) Since we are roughly the same size, I tried on dresses for Michelle in her place.

We started our shopping expedition at Belk. Our goal was to find a dress available at a well known retail store like Belk, Dillard's, or David's Bridal. Stores that are throughout the United States and could be accessible to all my bridesmaids. Ordering from an online site was our backup plan. I wanted to start searching early for the dresses, because I knew that online sites often require 12-16 weeks of notice for their products. I didn't want to delay looking and then feel rushed later. Our timing might not have actually been the best though, since it was just before Prom. Most of the stores were discounting their current stock (which was good) and replacing them with the springier designs. It was sort of hit and miss. Everything had been kind of picked over, but we were able to find a few items that had multiple sizes and were decently priced. Finding a dressing room however, proved to be the harder task. Actually, I found that task to be quite annoying, considering that trying on the dresses was half our reason for physically being in the store versus finding something online. Being an experienced online shopper, I can profess that not everything that looks good online will look good on all body shapes. The same can be said about clothes on hangers and manikins. They don't always flatter the figure either. An important factor of our search was to find a dress that looked good on everyone or a dress for each person that would suit their figure. We found two dresses at Belk, but own that stood out as "The One." We continued our search and moved on to Dillard's, whose selection of evening gowns seemed to be a bit more broad and in a variety of colors. Suddenly, excited again by colors (yes, I know, I'm terribly indecisive at times) we tried on several of the dress styles, becoming quite attached with a plum colored gown with lace. Yes, I have a major weakness for lace as we have also previously established.

Unfortunately, this dress wasn't exactly what I was looking for either, but while we were at the checkout looking up the sizes for the plum dress, my eyes fell back onto this black dress I had past over because it was a size eight. For the heck of it, I decided to go ahead and try it on, even though it didn't look that great on the hanger. (Now what did I just say about hangers and their deception?) Turns out, it was perfect! Well, perfect except for being 2-4 sizes too big. It's perfect because it goes really well with my wedding dress. I really can't say too much more other than that though, but I can post a picture which is to the left. (Ignore the white socks.) I really love the chiffon rose rosettes. The top is actually a spandex material. The only draw back to this dress was that its smaller sizes were only available online and in sizes 6-16. Later, after we ordered them, Dillard's had issues actually locating our dresses and had to search its 300+ store locations in order to find them. I had my fingers crossed until I got a confirmation of Michelle's dress being shipped from the Dillard's in Nashville. Turns out these dresses were meant to be. :)

Now, I am just short a dress for my junior bridesmaid Samantha. She has the same problem I had at her age, she's tall and skinny. However, I think I can modify a plain black dress that I already have that is made out of the same chiffon fabric. It is pictured to the right. I'll need to dress it up a bit, maybe by attaching a belt with some rosette flowers or something. I'm open to suggestions since I have time to think and work on this project in the next couple months. All things considered, I am very pleased with the bridesmaid dresses. I'm really excited to see how they all look on the bridesmaids together and how they look with some bright colored flowers, which is an entirely different post altogether. :) At least, with my wedding date drawing ever closer, I won't have to worry about dates or deadlines to order either my wedding dress or bridesmaids dresses from a bridal shop or to keep appointments for alterations. I can check this task partially off the list for now. :)