Love this headpiece

Created by the very amazing Ashley Maxwell http://ashleymaxwellphoto.com/blog Can't wait to have her design something for me. :)

Maid of Honor flowers

Saw these at Michaels and loved them. Right now they are just flowers, but eventually they are going to be gorgeous bouquets for Tif and Heidi complete with some Natalie charm.

My shoes are here!

The extremely kind people at Vince Camuto "gifted" me these pair of AMI Vince Camuto sandals for my wedding day. They are absolutely perfect and I can't wait to wear them in Mexico. Actually I have to hide them from myself because I want to keep them pristine for the big day. (I have a habit of wearing shoes out. ; /) To see them up close and to see the other AWESOME shoes Vince Camuto offers, check out vincecamuto.com

I'm in love with this look.

Check out these awesome accessories my amazing photographer Ashley Maxwell created for this shoot. Depending on my wedding dress, I'd love to do the same look. Especially since our wedding colors are navy, peach, and grey and my two Maid of Honors will be wearing navy blue. LOVE. IT.

Going wedding dress shopping with my mom on Friday so more updates on that later.

WOOHOO!!!!!!!

Just put our deposit down (thanks, Mom!!!) with our AMAZING photographer Ashley Maxwell. (fall in love with her at ashleymaxwellphoto.com/blog) Things are starting to feel REAL.

A little inspiration

A little mood board as a nod to our peach, navy, and grey wedding colors. Now on to making Save the Dates. 

I found my shoes! (Kind of...)

So I saw this spread in Harper's Bazaar and fell in love with the vintage-inspired, jewel-encrusted flower Vince Camuto sandals. I can't, however, find them anywhere online (including vincecamuto.com.) They're from the Spring 2010 line so hopefully they just haven't been released yet. Grant likes the silver ones (starred), which I'm starting to like a lot, too. I guess I'll have to see them in person to decide. If anyone knows Vince Camuto personally, please tell him to jump on their release.

Wedding Colors!

So it dawned on me as I was going into earlier posts that I never told anyone what our wedding colors will be. It's funny to go back and look at the earlier stages of my planning and see how different things are now. The wedding colors that Grant and I have chosen are: Navy, Peach, and light grey. A mood board may or may not be coming soon. :)

Introducing: Ashley Maxwell

"Call it fate, call it God, call it a match made in Heaven." That was one of the lines from an email Ashley wrote to me when we discussed her being our wedding photographer. We saw her work on OnceWed.com (my favorite source for wedding inspiration) and emailed her on a whim. Her shots capture everything I've ever wanted my wedding pictures to look like, and Ashley is as beautiful (on the inside and out) as the images she captures. We're very excited to have her and her husband shoot our wedding and be a special part of our matrimonial Mexican fiesta! :)

Fall in love with her work here: http://ashleymaxwellphoto.com/blog/

This dress took my breath away

http://www.jlmcouture.com/Jim-Hjelm/Bridal/Spring/2010/Style-8012

Introducing, Justin Alexander

I like that it's different, Grant likes that it's tea-length. If I get something shorter, I'm def going to need some kick ass shoes.

*You can click on the picture to make it bigger, or check out the details in the link below.
http://www.justinalexanderbridal.com/en_us/8465.html

Love these veils from Brenda's Bridal Veils on Etsy

Great styles and great prices. All hair pieces are separate from the veil so you can wear the birdcage during the ceremony, but take it off for the reception. 

A couple more DB dresses

Maybe I can wear my hair down with a birdcage veil...

Have always loved the look of birdcage veils, but I also want to wear my hair down. Didn't think the two would go together until I found these...

New Looks for Less

Love this look

Saw these photos in a Facebook photo album of my friend Melissa Vankirk Pouncey. Love how she had her bridesmaids pick their own dresses in the same basic color. I'd love to do this with all of my besties, even though I'm still not sure I want to have bridesmaids. I do want to have pictures with all of my girls, though.

More From the 2009 Fall Kleinfeld Kollection

Grant's Pick

He wants me to go out and buy this dress right now. I like it, too. So maybe. Jim Hjelm from the Fall 2009 collection.

Ivory Silk Satin Faced Organza A-line gown, strapless embroidered bodice with crystals and hand-cut Silk Organza, Chiffon and Charmeuse, natural waist accented with Platinum moire ribbon, bias cut asymmetrical ruffle skirt, chapel train.

Sounds expensive. Looks amazing.

I Can't Stop Looking at this Dress

I know I've posted like a million dresses on here before, but I can not take my eyes off this one. It's from the new Kleinfeld Kollection, so it's probably pretty pricey, but maybe I can hit up a sample sale or something.

I really like her hair up in a ponytail like that, too. I think I might forgo the veil for a headpiece on this one, though.

Marriage is all about compromise

So if I end up going way under budget by buying a wedding dress from David's Bridal, I think I'm aloud to go over budget on my shoes.

I really like these bridesmaids dresses for my MOHs

The dress that has a name

A new contender: The Miranda dress by Monique Lhuillier.

This is the dress Rose was wearing in the post below. LOVE. IT. Absolutely stunning and gorgeous and everything I have ever dreamed of in a wedding dress.

Two concerns:

1) Can I afford it (WAY over budget)
2) Will my chest fit or can I make my chest smaller by the wedding?

I think I've got it

Maybe I'll change my mind in the next 478 days, but I think they almost seem too perfect to change.

For the maids of honors/groomsmen processional: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKH0sMb2oJQ

followed by

the father of the bride/bride processional: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mc1rQG7Uc

Rose Made Me Want to Have a Veil

If I do, it's going to be cathedral style like this. Her pictures may have sold me on it. And her dress is AMAZING. My dream dress.

I Kinda Wish We Could Do This

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Currently obsessed with...

having a candy buffet at the at-home-reception! Possibly instead of dessert, possibly in conjunction with dessert as a favor guests can choose for themselves. Found a candy buffet specialist located in south jersey. Here is a pic from one of her photo galleries.

I changed the mood board (again)

It will be fun to look back at this blog after our wedding and see how drastically things changed from beginning to end. But then again, that's why this blog is about the EVOLUTION of our wedding. :)

I can't wait to register!

Here are two things I would definitely put on it right now: luggage and china. Yeah, that's right--china. If you never thought I would care about (let alone fall in love with) dinnerware, don't worry, I didn't think I would care either. But, turns out I do! I think the rolling duffel on the luggage we like has been discontinued though, so that kind of sucks. But we won't officially register for a while, so maybe we'll find something we like even better by then.

Pretty.

This is made by the same person who made the other headpieces I've posted. I'm kind of super in love with this one, and the colors are perfect.

A Note On Safety Concerns...

From a fellow Destination Bride that got married in Mexico March 2009...

Recently there has been a lot of talk about whether or not it's safe to go to Mexico, so I thought I'd pass along my experience to hopefully help future brides, or anyone wanting to go. DH and I did many off-resort activities and at no point did we ever feel threatened, scared, or nervous. Everyone we met was very friendly and usually struck up long conversations with us. The security going into and out of the resorts is VERY tight (all visitors are required to state why they're there, who they're visiting, and to leave id) and I got the impression that it has always been that way. The only point in time when I was slightly skeeved was when we went through a checkpoint on the main highway where the police are stationed (apparently they're scanning for suspicious vehicles and trying to prevent drug trafficking and whatnot) and they have very seriously-looking guns... but I've also seen that in the US before and have been skeeved out by that as well. But I understand that they are there to protect and to catch the bad-guys, so I'm ok with it lol. We took cabs several times and the drivers were always friendly and as long as you take the official ones (they're very easy to spot) you should have no problemo. We didn't go off the resort at night but that was mainly because there was sooo much to do at the resort that it just wasn't needed, and we were pretty pooped too! We honestly felt like all the hype was just that... PDC (especially Playacar... Love it!) felt very homey and welcoming to us. We really can't wait to go back!

Bottom line is... would you go to Philly? If you answered yes, you should feel more than comfortable going to Playa del Carmen/Tulum/Puerto Morelos and probably Cancun (we spent a total of 3 hours in cancun so I can't really speak for that city). I hope this info can help some of my lovely knotties out there!!

Other Photographers We Love <3

http://www.amelialyon.com/ <3favorite
http://www.drewbphotography.com/
http://www.tristalerit.com/

If you knew how many of my sentences started with, "The girls on The Knot said..." this would be especially funny to you...