This is bananapants's Green Wedding!

I'm posting this more for me to refer back to later, but hey, you might find some things you decide you can't live without either.

Parking sign from Fluffy Co for $32.

(Sigh) Isn't it adorable?

Um... yeah, for the rest of my finds, I decided to take the quick route, and just put them in the pictures to the left of the post. It's one of THOSE days today girls. :)

I was going through my music library tonight, making a playlist for my parents to add to their iPods because they're flying out to Jamaica tomorrow. (Yeah, slightly jealous. It's ok if you are too!) :) Anyway, my mom has NO CLUE how to add music to her MP3 player "thingy," and being the good daughter that I am, I'm gathering music and podcasts for her and will show her how it's done when they stop by tomorrow before flying out.

Anyway, yeah, this post is about me finding what could be our first dance song. I'm losing focus!

I just listened to "These Are the Days" by the incomparable Van Morrison. Fade the song out just before the 4 minute mark, and it's perfect for our first dance!

Here, take a listen:


Gonna have to run this past the Mister when he gets home... what do YOU GUYS think?

Spose I should backtrack a little bit on this one, huh? :)

I'm working on trivia questions for our trivia cards during dinner, and thought, "I should check what stupid/silly holiday falls on our wedding day, and make that a question!"

So, one google search later, and voila! 8/14/10? It's Kool-Aid Day, people. Oh Yeah!

Just thought you should know. What makes this even funnier? One of our friends has a "real-deal" Kool-Aid costume and wanted to bust through a "brick wall" after our big kiss, and shout "Oh Yeah... Oh Yeah... Oh Yeah!" to everyone. We nixed that idea, but now I'm thinking he should do it to kick off our grand entrance at the reception, in honor of Kool-Aid Day and everything. I mean, we have to do it now, right?!

So, I *KNOW* you're going to look your date up... what's your holiday?

I have been looking at shoes online throughout the day today (obsess much?), hoping to find the perfect combination of:
*Comfort
*Style

I started perusing the boards on WeddingBee, to see what other brides had to say about COMFORTABLE, DYEABLE shoes that will accommodate my wide-ass feet and high arches, and ta-da, I. found. THIS. POST. and THIS. POST. about Angela Nuran's shoes.

From Angela's website:

Angela Nuran shoes are the ultimate solution to a problem women have endured for ages. Having to choose either beautiful shoes that hurt... or comfortable shoes that aren't pretty. How can a woman fully enjoy an event if her feet are killing her?

Features of her (very pretty!) shoes:
*Padding - Extra thick padding throughout cushions heel, arch, and ball of foot providing superiour "pillow top" comfort for hours
*Suede Sole - The soft sole flexes with the foot allowing muscles to relax and provides secure, non-slip traction.
*Insole - Insoles are soft, ultra comfortable, ultra suede to caress the foot.
*Buckles - Jewelry quality metals with Swarovski crystals. No prongs to snag gown. Ankle buckle hooks so they're fast and easy to put on and won't fray fabric. Toe and ankle straps are adjustable to fit ANY width.

Halleluah. Can you hear the angels singing? And the countless testimonials from brides on her site is IMPRESSIVE. They're available in two heel heights, 2 1/2" and 3 1/2", and come in white, ivory, black, and can be dyed ANY color. Heck to the yes.

A wedding boutique in town carries them, and I can't wait to head over and try them on! I think I found a winner! The only downside is the price... approx $250. But, having pain-free feet all night is wellllllll worth it. And since I'm dying them red, I'll wear them over and over and over and over again.

Are you/were you on a comfortable/fashionable shoe quest? What did you find?

First, it was the wedding date. (Our original date was trumped by a BACHELOR PARTY.) Whatever - that's old news, and I'm over it. However if it rains all day August 14th, and July 31st is an absolutely gorgeous day, our friend Mason is gonna have lots of 'splaining to do! Like, a year's supply of Oreos-worth!

Then, it was our venue.

Two weeks ago, my dress came in without the correct special order changes I intended, so it came in as a trumpet skirt instead of a modified a-line. (Turning it into a modified a-line is what SOLD me on the dress, so this was no bueno.) Figuring out where we go from here literally *just* got straightened out between the bridal shop and the designer, and the gown is being redesigned, (this time, with a different skirt pattern), AND either Pronovias or my bridal shop is waiving any additional fees. Heck, yeah! Gotta love excellent customer service. :) And, phew! I thought I was going to have to go dress shopping again, and in my online searches, I wasn't finding anything I loved as much...

So, here's me in the gown that came in, checking out my hippyliciousness. What? It's a word. I just made it up... Anyway, you can see I'm not in love with what I'm seeing, especially from the front.


Here's the silhouette of the skirt that is going into my new gown. (The lace will be like my dress.)

Dress from the '06 Spring Collection of the Elie Saab collection for Pronovias. Sorry, don't know what gown it is. :(

Put it together, and it will be something like this:


I am *sooooooooo* excited for it to come in in June. :)

And, now, the shoes that I ordered, in double-wide EE size? They're too narrow. Who knew my feet were that ginormous? (Kind of a blow to the ego, I'm telling ya!) ; )

I'm thinking about going the ballroom dance shoe route now, like these, but with a 2 1/4" heel:


And dye them similar to this color:


Anyone else experiencing lots of "Plan Bs" this with their wedding planning? Do you find, sometimes, Plan B is BETTER than the original?

I'm in need of some new tuneage. (Wedding-related or otherwise.)

So, share your top ten songs on your MP3 player right now!

Here's mine, from a recent flight playlist I put together:
1) Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
2) Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer
3) The Dreaming Tree - Dave Matthews Band
4) Knocked Up - Kings of Leon
5) Comfort Eagle - Cake
6) What a Crying Shame - The Mavericks (at Austin City Limits)
7) Rave On - John Mellencamp
8) It's Your Thing - Isley Brothers
9) Living in the Moment - Mason Jennings
10) You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall & Oates

Hmm...don't really know if any of these are wedding-related, but there you have it! Just click on the links to hear the songs...I guess 7, 8, 9, and 10 could work for wedding stuff? :)

What's your fave songs/artists right now?

Ok, so not really... :)

But, her Mama Kelly found her dress yesterday at Baby Gap! Isn't it adorable??

Best part? It only put her back $30.

Halleluah.

Now, just got to see if we should go the girly route with little bobby socks and Mary Janes, get her some fun sandals, or stick with her tomboyish roots and go with little Chuck Taylors. It may be a game-time decision...

Tonight the mister and I were updating some photography websites for a couple of his clients, and scrolling through one of the fashion/model galleries, I about died when I saw the first (main) picture. I love her confidence, yet this seems to be such a quiet moment at the same time, and the play of shadows/light is simply stunning, no? Seriously, I could just look at this picture for... well, a long time. :)

Here she is, in all her glory:


*SWOON* The photographer is a friend of ours (he'll be doing our engagement pics, but absolutely positively REFUSES to shoot weddings, the brat!), and my honey called him and asked if we could try and recapture this shot with me during the shoot, because it really caught his eye too.

I included a couple of his other shots too, (as well as a few others I've come across) in case any of you are looking for some boudoir inspiration where you show some skin and your sexy side, but still leave a little something to the imagination and aren't totally flashing your lady-bits for all the world to see. :)

I don't have a lot of time to write, so this is going to be short and sweet, but I wanted to share with you guys screen shots of our honeyfund honeymoon registry.

We've lived together for 2+ years, and already have pretty much everything that we need (or have room for) in our townhome. Therefore, we don't have a lot of "stuff" that we need to register for, and thought this made a lot more sense. Without this, we'd do a "budget" Caribbean cruise honeymoon, and we're hoping with this, we'll be able to do more excursions, upgrade our cabin, etc. Who knows, maybe we'll even fly first class?

Honeyfund is really convenient and user-friendly (for both you and your guests.) Guests can take a look at your registry, pick what they want, and then give you that money denomination, either via PayPal, a check, or cold hard cash. They're then directed to print off a certificate, indicating what they got you, and add a personalized note, so you can see what they 'gifted' you. Suh-weet.

Click on the pictures to see how we added our personality to our registry. We wanted to make it fun!

Came across these today on my (never used) MySpace page, and had to share with you guys. They make me smile. :)

Take it away, Nater!

Ba ha ha... his face at the end kills me!

And this one is soooooo Nate, after a long night celebrating his birthday with friends. He's not on camera, but you'll hear his voice...eventually:


Hmm... may need to incorporate these into the wedding somehow? Perhaps
a little wedding video, instead of a wedding slideshow?

Last night the Mister and I were watching a movie and of all things, a school celebration scene totally nailed the vision I had in my head for our ceremony decor. Gotta love Hollywood set designers! Take a look:



From KNOWING, an... ok...film with Nicolas Cage.

And here's other ideas I've come across:


I'm thinking we could drape these banners on something like this:

(My Dad could totally make this..) :)

Put painted sand pail flower buckets on each side of the "altar", and spell out L-O-V-E on one side, and X-O-X-O on the other, kinda like this:


And, just a refresher, here's some other pieces of the puzzle:

Ok. So. Uh.... On Sunday (hmmm, count 'em: 1, 2, 3...) THREE days ago, I put up a blog post of decoration ideas for our ceremony at a park. In that post, I wrote these famous last words:

Originally, the plan was to marry at my parents' home, in their front yard. However, plans changed (as they have a tendency of doing) when my Dad asked me to consider other options because he was not looking forward to all the work preparing the lawn/gardens/parking etc. for the 'big day.' I believe his exact words were: "Maybe you can make our home Plan Z. [Plan Z! Ha!] If I can, I'd rather skip all that stress!" Hmm. How could I say no to that?!

Ha ha ha. "Plans change." Heck yes they do! The very next day, (Monday, for those of you keeping track,) I get an e-mail from my Mom, saying basically that the park we had reserved got double booked. The band stand (where we were having our ceremony) was still available, BUT, the shelter was reserved for a family reunion. (We were just going to reserve it so no one else would have access to it, for privacy sake. The reception is at another venue, so we didn't really *need* it.) So, I stay calm, and say, ok, being such a small town, let's call the person that booked it and see what their plans are. If they plan on being done by 4 or 5, no problem. We can just push things back. But I am not changing the date - again. (There's a story! Let's just say a Bachelor Party trumped our original wedding date. Stupid boys...) :) Anyway, the family that rented the shelter is planning on PARTYING all day and well into the night, and kind of have a reputation for gettlng a little loud and "rowdy." Guh-reat. (Can you see it? Me, walking down the aisle, and some stranger yells out God knows what? Awesome.) And now parking was probably going to be an issue. Hmmmm.

The next day (Tuesday), my Mom said, "Maybe we should consider having the wedding back at the house. But, if you want to do it, YOU gotta convince your Daddy." Huh. Well, he's a typical guy, and bases all decisions on logic versus emotion. So, I drew up a list of pros and cons for each, to first figure out what made the most sense to me (while trying to look at it through his lens, of all the hard work/stress going into preparing things "just so" before-hand, because my Dad is not one to do things half-assed. If you're going to do something, do it right, dammit! That's his perfectionist motto.)

Well, if you're still reading this (God bless you), obviously, the pros/cons heavily weighed to having the wedding at home AND I was able to talk my Dad into it. :)
1) It's just plain beautiful.
2) It's sentimental and meaningful. Lots of good memories there.
3) Parking's going to be an issue at either place, so it's off the table.
4) Etc. Etc. (I don't need to bore you with the details.)

So, without further ado, here's a picture of the front yard, where the ceremony will take place:


Everything happens for a reason, right? If I hadn't already gone through the hassle of changing the date, I probably would have said, welllllllll, let's look at other date options. And the fact that our Plan B fell through? Just means something's telling us to stick with the original plan. And you know what? I'm much more excited about getting married at home. I thought I had let go of all of those preconceived notions and visions of getting married at the house, and was just as happy to be getting married at a very pretty park (but one that I had no emotional connection to.) But that wasn't exactly true, and I didn't realize it until we went back to Plan A. (Or Z, however you want to look at it.) :)

Anyone else coming full-circle with their wedding plans?

So, I was going through the Fossil website just now (a favorite pastime, really) and literally gasped when I saw this necklace.

One of you kick-ass ladies, please buy this, (and wear it on your wedding day), so I can live vicariously through you. :) Is it not AWESOME?

That is all... Oh, and they have even more fun stuff on their website. Go. Now.

Before I get started, I should probably backtrack a little bit. :)

Originally, the plan was to marry at my parents' home, in their front yard. However, plans changed (as they have a tendency of doing) when my Dad asked me to consider other options because he was not looking forward to all the work preparing the lawn/gardens/parking etc. for the 'big day.' I believe his exact words were: "Maybe you can make our home Plan Z. [Plan Z! Ha!] If I can, I'd rather skip all that stress!" Hmm. How could I say no to that?!

Knowing we wanted to get married outdoors, we scoped out 2 parks in the area, and made our selection. We stopped there this weekend (in the ice and snow) to try and envision decor ideas, and when we got back today, I started gathering ideas online:

This is the "Band Stand," where the ceremony will take place. (Excuse the craptastic tiny picture! It's the only one I could find during the summertime.)

Trust me, it's much better in person. Blech! But can you see the potential?

All the little pictures on the left are general ceremony decorating ideas I've gathered along the wedding planning journey, and will hopefully somehow tie in to the decor.

Today, I was trying to find ideas to cover up the doors on both sides of the bandstand. Magically/randomly, I found this:


Um, yeah! Spray paint sand buckets and use them for flower planters? Brilliant! Filled with zinnias/dahlias? On a relaxed, unstuffy shelf that will raise the buckets up a little bit so everyone can see them?


While I love our color palette, I don't want it to be E-V-E-R-Y-WHERE, so I'm thinking we'll spray paint the pails in colors like this:

and this (ok, so this is like our color palette, but whatever.):


And then, on the second tier of the shelf, get a tall canvas, and have the FH paint something that somehow ties in to the look/feel of everything. Either that, or add more shelves, and put fun little somethings on them that look cool and have personal meaning to us. We'll see where that one goes. :)

Suggestions? Thoughts? Ideas?

I came across this song tonight and immediately started swaying, even though my butt was planted firmly on the couch. Ohhhhhhh yeah...



Come on girls, join me. I *KNOW* I'm not the only one doing it. :)

Sigh. Such a good song. Al Green = Master. I wanna sneak away with my guy at some point during the day and just sway, laugh, and take everything in together. With this song playing in the background, cuz, um, it's perfect. I'm loving the visual. :)

Yep, gonna need to make this happen, somehow. Mom, I know you're reading this. Figure it out, will ya?! Ha!

I e-mailed my girls today about their bridal party looks. I don't want them to be "matchy-matchy," but I *WOULD* like them to coordinate.

So I gave them the following parameters:

*Knee length/Tea length
*Peachy shades of Pinks; to Coral; to Orangey shades of Red
*Nothing too formal; doesn't necessarily have to be a BM dress
*They have to loooooove their dress!
*They are In charge of their entire look, head to toe.

And I sent them this images, so they see what colors/feel we're going for:





(The second picture is from David's Bridal Dress Your Wedding. Great tool; fun to play and put ideas together, whether you shop there or not!)

So, what do you guys think?? Are you jumping on the non-matchy bandwagon too?

Do you guys ever have one of those days, were serendipitously, things line themselves up and pretty much lay themselves out FOR YOU? This happened to me yesterday with the guestbook, and I wasn't even focusing my attention on a guestbook! (Although I had it listed on my things to do this week on my planner, so it was in the back of my mind.)

I think to show what I mean, I'm going to list the links I came across yesterday, either here, on WBC, or from my Google Reader, in the order they came to me, throughout the day.

The Image is Found raved about this Polaroid Camera alternative. Love the mini pictures. So cute, and faux-tobooth like! (And *swoon* over the heart collage! Thinking we'll do something like that behind the dessert table? But that's a whole 'nother post for some other day.)



Then, I came across Melorbride's post asking about Guestbook Alternatives, so I hit up my inspiration folder and shared Stinkerpants' awesome idea (which I am SHAMELESSLY stealing because it's so flipping brilliant...as is she. If you haven't seen her wedding yet, click on her link!)



The card says:
"Welcome to our PhotoBooth Guestbook! We'll be placing your photo booth picture here after the wedding, so please sign next to it!

We would love if you would sign more than just your name! Tell us a story, give us some advice, draw us a picture... anything! We want this book to be fun to look at, so please, show us your personality!!!

Please leave a note over here!"

Yup. Couldn't have said that any better myself.

Well...then, last night, Miss Pug on WeddingBee wrote about the SAME instant camera AND (here's the important part) about the guestbook she's using. It was EXACTLY what I had in mind, the price. is. right, and she did my homework for me and said that this was the best option she found for the money. Halleluah! Can you hear the angels singing?


I mean, seriously. That was easy. I wish I had my Big Red Staples Button all the time! Greaaaat Success! :)

Kind of related to this, SarahDarling is incorporating her ring-warming with the signing of the guestbook BEFORE the ceremony. I really really like that idea, (perfect for a larger wedding) and her set-up is super cute!


So, thank you, thank you sugardarlings for making this the easiest part of wedding planning so far! Wish it all came together this way!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted this blog post about my jewelry and shoes. My how things change. :) I took the comments to heart, and decided to go a different direction with shoes, and found these:

I had several parameters to contend with that really limited my shoe choices: I have reallllly wide feet (thanks Dad), so I needed shoes that came in extra wide sizing; my dress requires a 2 1/4" heel so I don't have to hem the lacework on it (royal P.I.T.A. and $$$); and I want reddish shoes, so I opted for dyeable ones. These fit the bill, I thought they were cute and they didn't break the bank, so, voila! I'll add some Foot Petals to them, and they should be fine all night long.

But the BIGGEST change was my jewelry, which I thought I was already 100% on. I was on the most addicting site EVER, Etsy.com and came across this beauty:


OhMyGosh! I want it, and I want it NOW! I messaged the seller, and asked if she would custom design me earrings to go along with them. She replied back within hours, and it's like she got inside my head and delivered EXACTLY what I wanted. It's all in rough computer-generated sketches right now, but here's the general idea:


*Swoon* (I know, forgive the crappy images, but aren't they beautiful?) The middle piece in the earring is vintage, so I now have my something old! La dee freeken dah!

And here's a board of how it all comes together: I love how the jewelry ties in to the straps on my dress. :)


Now I just need to figure out whether or not I want to find some shoe clips and doctor those puppies up. What do you think? Necessary? Or skip it? (I don't know what shade of red the shoes will be either...maybe I could dye them a champagne color, and add a red adornment on it? Decisions, decisions.)

I wanted to take advantage of the after-Christmas sales (really, the best deals of the entire year) and get my girls their gifts on the cheap. I mean, they're certainly worth full retail and all, but I got a budget to keep! [Oh great, I'm rhyming. Somebody stop me, please!] :)

So, yesterday I went to The Gap during my lunch break, and found shirts like these for $6.99, in a whole spectrum of colors and sizes. (They're not on the website for some reason...) Five girls, five colors. $35.00.


Today, I shopped online and was looking for loungy pj bottoms to complete the look. (Little sidenote: We're having a girls night at my parents' place after the rehearsal, and I thought new PJs would be fun. They're each choosing their own dresses and accessories, so no need to get them traditional BM jewelry.) I found the best deal at Aeropostale, and really liked these, at $11.85 each. Again, each girl is getting a different color, and I really thought about their style and color preferences when choosing who got what.


So, this means I got their BM gifts for a little under $100. Score! My mom knits slippers, and I think I'm going to ask her to knit each girl some slippers to match their PJs. They had them in college and LOVED them. :)

Woo Hoo for checking this off of my list! Now, onto the Man of Honor (my brother) and the Groomsmen. The Mister has some thinking to do...any suggestions?

Just wondering what your favorite weddings were that you attended, and why? (Or what is it that stands out in your mind about them?)

Mine mostly boil down to the people. The dress, the flowers, the food - that's all icing on the cake. But the people, the laughter, the emotion, the comraderie, and the love that shines through is what makes my favorite weddings my favorites.

Here's my top 3, in no particular order, and the things that stood out most to me in each wedding:

Outdoor Colorado Ceremony/Reception - Amazing couple (each incredible people in their own right, and together, WOW!); toasts that were straight from the heart, and made EVERYONE cry; celebrating with my closest college girlfriends (YAY!) equaled lots of love, laughter, hugs, and dancing, and we were all ECSTATIC to be together again. (We're now scattered all over the country, so this doesn't happen nearly enough.) Ok, ok, and the spectacular mountain views, the SuperMan grooms' cake, and overall simple elegance was pretty awesome... : )

Back Home Wedding with MLB Twist - Groom is a HUGE (no, really,
H-U-G-E) Major League Baseball fan, and they incorporated this into their day, from their vintage baseball-inspired invitations to giving out Cracker Jacks as wedding favors and handing out Brewer Beads for everyone to wear on the dance floor. Best part though? Their obvious love for one another. I remember looking at the two of them and thinking, "I want THAT when I get married." (And woo hoo, I've got it!) And the dance was. SO. MUCH. FUN. I didn't want that night to come to an end!

Hippie Island Wedding - Bride walked down the aisle barefoot, hair down and flowy; reception at an old farmstead complete with hog roasts, corn on the cob, numerous kegs of root beer and beer all over the grounds; the smell of incense and pot wafting through the air; a barn loft dance floor accented with tie-die banners on the walls, and a bluegrass band. Obviously this wedding stands out in my mind for several reasons. But my favorite part of the day was dancing with my Dad, Grandpa, and favorite Uncle, and laughing at the the (maaaaaany) stories they had to share. : )

Thinking back on these weddings REALLY makes me look forward to ours because I know it will have these elements most important to me: heartfelt words, touching toasts, LOVE, hugs, non-stop dancing, and the joy of family and friends. (Sigh.) I cannot wait.

Now, it's your turn... your wedding favorites, why, and what does it make you look forward to with your wedding? Spill it!

Good.Googledy.Goo. Just click the link, play the music, and be prepared to be blown away. WOW.

And, just for laughs, here you go:
Mahna Mahna by The Muppets by bananapants

For added effect, here's the song I'm walking down the aisle to:

What do you guys think? Does this flow? Anything seem out of place?