1 Year and a Feature on EAD!

One year ago today, Hunter and I were practicing walking down the aisle at our wedding rehearsal. It is CRAZY to think that already a whole year has flown by since being married!

To commemorate our first anniversary, I thought I'd (finally) share our wedding!

But first, since it is WAAAY overdue, I wanted to share our wedding featured on one of the most fabulous wedding blogs around, Elizabeth Anne Designs!

We were honored to be featured as a Real Wedding back in May (I know, I am so behind the power curve here, forgive me!). I was excited to hear from Ami and give her some insight into our wedding planning and the day itself. She gave us a wonderful feature, and shared some of our favorite images. We love how it turned out!

Thank you to Ami at Elizabeth Anne Designs for sharing our special day!

(all images by Kate Headley Photography)

Southern Living Weddings

Hunter and I are excited to have had our summer wedding recently featured in Southern Living Weddings magazine!

It was a thrill to be interviewed and to have our celebration included among 25 real weddings in this special issue. Southern Living is a staple in our family household so it's a bit surreal. Thanks to our fabulous photographer Kate Headley, for taking such magazine-worthy photos!

More wedding photos and DIY details to come (I'm finally getting around to sharing!)

married!

Greetings from the married side! Time has flown by and we're already back from our honeymoon (which was absolutely great--more on it later).

I'm excited to share the details of the wedding; all the projects and ideas, and pictures and stories. The wedding last Friday was absolutely amazing--the weather was beautiful, the event was pretty perfect, and so many of our guests have noted how great a time they had. I'm so happy that everything came together and we were able to celebrate with friends and family at a beautiful event. We had amazing vendors that each provided the perfect touch, and the best support from family and friends who helped make the day what it was. Every time I think about our wedding, I can't help but smile... and I love that!

Married life is, in a word... great! It's amazing when you get to spend all your time with your best friend. And now we have a house (apt) to make our home; we've got meals to cook, furniture to buy, walls to decorate, and memories to make!

Look out for more wedding posts to come :)

image of my bouquet from bridesmaid's camera

one week

One week from today I'll be walking down the aisle to marry my love.

I cannot wait!

image source unknown

fine china

I have not put any fine china on our wedding registries yet. Part of me thinks I will never use it so why spend the money? Then the other part of me thinks that it's tradition and it will always be nice to have. After all, if ever there was a time to ask for fine china, now is it! My dilemma is that I cannot choose a pattern I love enough. I want something timeless but unique. Something with some color or pattern. Here are a few that have caught my eye so far...

Did you register for fine china?

all from Macys

oh hello there

I feel as though I have been gone forever from this little blog of mine. Where have I been? Here's a small glimpse of what has consumed my life for what seems like the past two months.

Those are envelopes. From my wedding invitations. For the last two months, I have been designing, debating, prepping, printing, cutting, coloring, assembling, addressing, sealing, and stamping over 200 invitations... all. by. hand.

Phew! The best part is that they are now done and mailed and we are steadily receiving RSVPs! And the wonderful compliments I've received on how great the invitations are have made all the stress, hard work, and long sleepless nights that went into making them totally worth it.

I can't wait to share them with you!

creative ventures

Our fabulous photographer, Kate Headley, just launched her new blog and featured our engagement photos as one of her first posts. Congrats to Kate on the new blog--I love the new design!

I've also been meaning to post a congrats to the ladies of the Hive at 1511 for the recent opening of their new creative studio!

We were lucky to visit during our engagement shoot and during their recent open house and it's such a great concept! Ritzy Bee Events, Simplesong Design, and Kate Headley Photography all in one space, and a ridiculously awesome space at that. What an exciting venture!

images by Kate Headley

that hat

I am in love with Carolina Herrera's latest bridal collection. Purely gorgeous. And I'm dying over that hat!

Oh that people still wore hats that way.

all images by Matthew Grazier via Style Me Pretty

e-session

One of the most important wedding priorities for me was the photography. It was probably the first thing we researched and booked aside from the venue. I wanted a fresh mix of classic style, photojournalism, and editorial. So I am super excited that the talented Kate Headley will be our wedding photographer! I came across her work through the blogosphere and really love her style, so she was the first photographer I turned to :)

A few weekends ago we set out on a beautiful spring Saturday to take our engagement photos. Although our original plan to hit up Georgetown (and Georgetown Cupcake) was spoiled by the masses of people descendant upon D.C. for the Cherry Blossom festival, we still had a fun time at an alternate location, strolling Old Town Alexandria.

Let me preface these photos by saying that the week leading up to our shoot, I had clocked in a tremendous number of hours at work. The day before our session I ended up working in the office from 7:30 am Friday to 5:30 am Saturday morning! So by the time we started taking pictures I had been up for about 34 hours straight with no sleep... Not how I would have preferred to prepare for my engagement photos, but we still had lots of fun and got some great shots :) Thanks Kate!

all images by Kate Headley Photography

a glimpse...

...of the Save the Dates that were sent out back in February.

I designed, printed and assembled them myself.* I received numerous compliments on them, which of course made me feel good, but what was most gratifying was that I was able to create. It was satisfying to see an idea become tangible and to be able to make the first glimpse of our wedding with my own hands.

*Thanks, Mom, for cutting envelope liners!

image by me

where are the wedding posts?

It's rather obvious that there has been a lack of posts on the actual wedding plans here on the blog. At the start of the planning process, I had every intention of sharing the process on here... all the fun details and decisions. But as planning kicked into full gear, and I actually started checking things off my list, I found that I kept wanting to keep the details under wraps, since many of our wedding guests also read my blog.

So I've decided not to post specific details about my wedding here until after the wedding in July (only 3-1/2 months away!). I know to some it might be a bit of a let down now, but I think it will be much better to be able to recap everything (with pictures!) afterwards. Not that I won't post about wedding stuff, I'd just rather keep the specifics of our actual wedding day a surprise :)

This whole planning process has been a roller coaster of emotions. Most of the stress comes from the fact that I seem to work so doggone much, and I feel like I don't have time to seriously plan, or do anything else for that matter! But we're making progress and I'm excited to see it all starting to come together. Here's some of the big things we've done so far, and some big things we still need to do...

I think we're way behind on the typical wedding timeline checklists, but oh well, we'll get it done! Thanks for sticking with me, faithful readers!

Time For Cake

We're having our first cake tasting today (yummy!). Not only are we choosing the flavors we want, but also the design and look of the cake. The first place I went for inspiration is, of course, Martha Stewart Weddings. So many pretty cakes...

all images from Martha Stewart Weddings

letterpress love

I finally experienced the pure joy of letterpress printing this past Saturday, and fell in love! I took a letterpress workshop with my mother offered by a local press shop and learned how to print on an antique C&P letterpress. We had a great time learning about the craft and printing our own project. There's a lot that goes into creating a letterpress piece, and I now have such a better appreciation for the time-honored tradition. I'm certainly looking to incorporate letterpress into the wedding in some factor. I'm smitten with it.

composing the lead type, letter by letter

printing on the press

our finished product--a beautiful, deep impression

Letterpress Workshop at Railway Station Press in Alexandria, VA. More on letterpress here.

images by me

the world on a plate

We are about to set up a wedding registry at Crate & Barrel (I'm excited!) so I was browsing the website for ideas. I don't think I'll be registering for these, but I thought this set of travel plates was uber-cute and fun for entertaining.

Travel Plates from Crate & Barrel