Wedding in the Country

While I was home I also went to a wedding. Let me tell you, weddings are so much more fun to go to when you are in the process of planning your own! I’ve been to a million weddings before (my dad is an ordained minister and marries people as a hobby–he actually did the wedding that I’m talking about now as well) but you notice the little things so much more when you are thinking about going through the same things yourself in just a few months. I went to high school with the bride and recently just designed her logo and website, so it was so nice to see her again and to be there on her wedding day. She looked beautiful, I absolutely loved the country setting, and her wedding photography showcases it all wonderfully.

 At the reception, I sat down next to the photographer and chatted with her while we ate. She is so nice and does amazing work! She is based in the St. Louis, MO area, so if you are around there and would like to have her photograph your wedding or other event, you can check her out on her website, here.

I loved the simple/rustic/elegant look that Carly created in her wedding. It was beautiful and makes me wish my own wedding wasn’t ten months away! June 2012, hurry up!

All photos copyright Cate Jackson Photography. Used with permission.

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DIY Colored Glass Bottles

I love glass bottles. I know I’ve said that before, but I just think that they are so pretty. I also have a love for mason jars. I like their history and rustic nature, while still being pretty.

For the wedding, I’m going for a classy/elegant look with touches of antique/rustic elements. I think both glass and mason jars fit well into that scheme. I’m going for a look similar to these images from my Wedding Board on Pinterest:

I really like the mixture of glass, candlelight, simple colorful arrangements of flowers, the textures of the burlap runner and jute and lace on the jars, and even the vintage books. I really like the antique blue mason jars in the bottom photo and would love to have some colored glass jars mixed in with the clear ones. Since antique blue mason jars can be kind of expensive depending on their rarity, I decided to try and see if I could find a way to color clear jars myself.

After a little research, I saw that people had tried this in various ways, but that most recipes used Mod Podge, water and food coloring. I decided to try it out on several old jars my mom had at home. (an old jelly jar, a clear wine bottle, an old olive jar and a small candle holder to be exact) I liked the antique blue color, but I had more red food coloring than blue and pink-coral hues fit in better with my wedding color scheme, so I decided to try for a pink/salmon/coral color. Here is what I did:

1. Wash and rinse glass jars, making sure that all of the labels and stickiness are removed from the outside. Let dry completely.

2. In a paper cup or other disposable container, combine preferred amount of Mod Podge (I used probably about half a cup or so for 4 jars of various sizes and had some leftover), about a tablespoon of water and stir in food coloring until the desired color is reached.

3. Set jars (I did mine upside down) on a paper plate, old newspaper or other work surface and using a small sponge brush or paintbrush, spread mixture onto the outside of the jars. (I read several recipes that did the inside of the jars instead, pouring the mixture inside and turning until coated completely, but I also read that if done on the inside, you couldn’t use water in them.)

4. Place jars on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil (so you don’t ruin it) and place in the oven and bake on the lowest setting your oven offers (mine was 175 degrees) until all the coating is dry and has turned from a cloudy color to a clear one. (If you wish, you can also put a second coat on and bake again for a deeper color.) If your jars are sticky, you might need to bake them longer.

5. Let cool and use for decoration! (I’ve also heard of people spraying these with a sealer of some sort, so you may do that also if you wish.)

So what did I end up with? I ended up with this:

Aren’t they pretty? I love the way they look with the light shining through them. They aren’t perfect though. If you look closely, you can see streaks from the coloring stuff and you can see the sticky mess along the tops from the mixture running down and sticking to the foil on the cookie sheet. At the wedding, they obviously wouldn’t have the same flowers in them, but I do think that here and there they could add pretty color and interest amongst other clear jars on the tables, don’t you think?

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Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Before I left Nashville on Monday morning, I awoke to this note on the table next to the bed:

Here they are closer up:

How utterly adorable is that? I love you, Evie. 🙂

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Weekend in Nashville

I hope you all have had fabulous weekends! Mine has been busy!

I flew into Nashville last week to visit my older sister and my nieces. My nieces and I have been playing with lots of dolls (Barbies, Polly Pockets, Lalaloopsies and various other stuffed animals — to be exact) and having tea parties.

We went to the huge Nashville flea market and I bought a pretty, handmade, wooden, farmhouse type table for our foyer to use as Drew’s desk/larger dining room table if we have guests over. I love it! I can’t wait to see it in our house! (I’m a little worried about how we are going to fit it in Drew’s car to get it home though. The legs come off with bolts and I’m just hoping the top won’t be too big to fit in the back.)

This weekend my mom and my younger sisters came down as well. We did lots and lots of shopping! For clothes and shoes and house goods and back-to-school things. My mom even looked at new cars. The main goal of our weekend though was wedding shopping!

I tried on a wedding dress here in Nashville during spring break that I really loved. I’ve tried on others since then, but none that I liked as much as this one. I really wanted my mom and sisters to see it, so we made sure to stop by and try it on again. Which, speaking of places to try on dresses in the Nashville area, if you are around these parts and are looking for wedding dresses, you should totally stop by The White Room. All the people that work there are so nice and they have beautiful dresses. Anyway, I tried it on again and didn’t want to get out of it! It is the perfect color — a soft, antique, light champagne/off-white/almond/vanilla color with the most delicate lace and the prettiest subtle sparkle and shimmer. The best part is— that it is MINE! We ordered it!!!

Since we ordered it, they did allow us to take pictures of me in the gown, but no one had brought our cameras because we didn’t expect to be ordering it then. I did get a few on my phone, but they don’t really do the dress justice, so I’m weary of posting them. Here is a little sneak peek:

I’m getting more and more excited about the wedding the more things that we get marked off of our wedding to-do list. It is making the whole thing a little less stressful and a little more real. Ordering the dress wasn’t the only thing that we accomplished on the list this weekend either! We also bought the fabric for the bridesmaids dresses!

This picture definitely doesn’t do the bridesmaids’ fabric justice either. It is a creamy/gray linen fabric with a lovely texture. I’m so excited to see the dresses once they are done and paired with bright colored flower bouquets! I can’t wait for the wedding!!!

It is getting closer! We’ve got the date set, the venue booked, the photographer booked, we’ve talked to the caterer, we’ve ordered the dress, bought the fabric for the bridesmaids dresses—we are definitely getting closer! I’m excited to be getting down to the fun little creative details now that we have most of the big stuff out of the way!

If you’d like a better idea of what my overall vision/inspiration is for the wedding, check out my wedding board on Pinterest!

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I DO in Southern Illinois & Engagement Feature!!

A couple months ago, Drew and I designed a really awesome website that has been one of our favorite things we’ve done so far. It was for an awesome photographer, graphic designer and wedding magazine founder/editor, Britni Woodworth and her Southern Illinois Wedding Magazine, I Do in Southern Illinois.

I absolutely LOVE that she has created this magazine to showcase all the wonderful talent, people, and businesses in Southern Illinois related to the wedding industry. The website includes a blog where she features real weddings and engagements and also where she gives brides-to-be ideas to help them plan their Southern Illinois wedding. She also features photographers, florists, and other people that provide pretty and quality work to assist on your wedding day or other event. The website also includes an e-glossy copy of the magazine she creates.

Not only am I thrilled about her site and her work, but she has so graciously featured Drew and I and our love story on her blog today!! Hop on over there to read about our story and see our engagement pictures!!

Click here to head on over there!

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Engagement Announcement

If you live in my hometown, you might have noticed that our engagement announcement came out in last Thursday’s paper. It took me long enough to get it in there, I know. (We got engaged in December and its almost August!) Anyway, I wasn’t at home to see it, so my dad sent me a couple copies of the paper and I just got them in the mail today. I thought I would share it on here in case you missed it in the paper or if you aren’t from my hometown.

I wish our picture didn’t look so grainy! I guess that is just newspaper printing though.


I even managed to squeeze my blog address in there. I figured that since I was paying for the announcement, why not? 🙂

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I Love You, Mamaw

With dinner tonight I made sweet iced tea. Just the way I used to help my Mamaw make it every day when I was four years old. I boiled the water and the Lipton tea bags on the stove and then poured them into my curvy pitcher that looks just like hers did and added the sugar and ice cubes and stirred with my wooden spoon creating a tornado in the middle of the glass until all the sugar was dissolved. I could picture myself right in the middle of her kitchen, kneeling in her far right kitchen chair and looking over the tea pitcher in front of me on the round table. I remember the wooden spoon, curved on the end and stained all the way up from years of stirring tea and sugar together.

When I was little, before I started school, my parents both worked and my older brother and sister were in school, so every day I would go to Mamaw’s house. I would help her cook and clean up the kitchen, help her make hummingbird food and fill up the feeders, feed the cats in the barn and fill up the bird feeders out in the yard. We would sit outside in the hammock or the swing and talk for hours and play “I Spy” or The Car Game, where I would get cars and she would get trucks and we would count them as they passed along the highway and whoever got the most won (Cars were always more numerous, so I always won). We would sit at the dining room table and I would build things with play-doh or I would tear off huge sheets of white paper from the big roll she had and I would draw and paint with watercolors on them. She was a retired schoolteacher so we would often play school as well. She taught me how to read and would write out math problems for me to add and subtract. I remember her often taking a sheet of paper and dividing it into boxes and then writing a word in each one like “ball” or “wagon.” Then I would have to read the word and then draw a picture of the object in the box. I also liked to dress up in her make-up, scarves and jewelry and put on plays for her in the window seat in the back play room. I thought it was a stage built just for me.

Almost every single memory I have as a young child has her in it. I attribute a lot of myself to her. The way I think, the way I act, my morals and values, my interests and passions, in many ways a lot of my own character comes from her. I am very thankful for that. She truly was an amazing woman.

She passed away unexpectedly in her sleep one night in September of my Sophomore year of high school. She was 86 years old and in good health, so it wasn’t something I ever saw coming. I was 15 years old and knew I wouldn’t be able to have her in my life forever, but I never thought I would lose her so soon.

Since she has been gone for almost five years now, I’ve gotten used to her not being in my life. I don’t expect her to be sitting in her usual chair when I walk into my grandparents house or on her usual spot in the pew on Sunday mornings at church. I thought that the older I got, the easier it would be to deal with her not being there for everything. But in fact I think it just gets harder every day. Every day more things happen in my life that I’ll never be able to share with her. She never got to see me dressed-up for proms or meet any of my boyfriends. I never got to drive her to her Friday hair appointments in my car like she always wished we could do once I got my license. I didn’t get to share the good news with her once I got accepted into colleges or got the scholarship that would take me to one. I didn’t get to rush into her arms and show her my engagement ring  and she won’t be there to watch me walk down the aisle and say “I do.” One day I’ll have kids she’ll never meet and all kinds of other things she won’t be there for. I feel even worse for my little sisters who got to have her in even less of their lives than I did.

I’ve always thought about her often, but lately it has been a constant thing. Every little thing reminds me of her. It is hardest now because I’m in my first home of my own, just getting used to cooking my own meals every day and planning my wedding. I want so bad to ask her how she made certain recipes that she used to cook or ask her what it was like to be a bride-to-be when she was young. To ask her for relationship advice or household tips or how she made it all work with the calmest demeanor and without raising her voice.

When I was home last, my dad and I went through every single nook and cranny in my grandparents house searching for my Mamaw’s wedding dress. We thought that it might be somewhere and I would have liked to see if there was a way that I could wear it on my wedding day. I had no idea what it looked like or where it might be, but we looked anyway. We didn’t find it, but in a box in the top of the closet we did find this:

I’m really happy that we at least found this photograph of what she looked like on her wedding day. I wish I could ask her all about that day. Where she got her dress or if she had it made, if it was borrowed from someone in her family or what happened to it in the end. What made her pick those shoes or flowers and what did she wear that was old, new, borrowed and blue. I wish I knew who the other people in the picture were and what the ceremony was like. My dad did say that it is her grandpa walking her down the aisle.

Finding this picture and thinking about my own wedding made me realize that not only was my grandma only here for a short amount of my life, I was only in hers for a short amount as well. The hardest thing about losing her when I was younger was that I never thought to ask her more about her life. About her childhood growing up in the twenties and thirties and making it through the Great Depression and being about my age or a little older during the war and what that all was like. She saw so much change during her lifetime and I wish I would have asked her more about it all. I wish I could know more about what she experienced and what made her into the person that I knew her to be.

It’s hard to know that I never will have the chance.

I do feel amazingly grateful though that she was the grandmother that God gave me out of all the possible ones out there in this world. I’m so happy for the things that she taught me in her lifetime and how those things have helped me to grow up well even once she was gone. I’m happy I still have memories of her and personality and character of my own that was shaped by hers. I know I have a long lifetime ahead of me without her, but luckily she started me out in the right direction.

That is a note I have from her from when I was little. I’m pretty sure it came from my lunchbox that she packed for me when I stayed at her house one week in 3rd grade when my parents were out of town. 

I love you too Mamaw.

 

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Vineyards and Wineries

It has been a few days, my friends. I’ve had so much to share with y’all, but not the time to do it. I’ve been (and still am) on vacation! It has been nice, but still overwhelmingly busy! I left New Orleans to head to Nashville to visit with my older sister and nieces for Memorial Day weekend, then headed up to my southern Illinois home for the week to visit with the rest of my family and work on wedding planning. Last weekend, my parents, little sisters and I all drove down to New Orleans, part of us in my mom’s van and part of us in my car, to take my car to New Orleans! I’ve been without it there for the past two years! It will be nice to actually be able to go places on my own now! After staying there for the night and doing some quick shopping with my sisters, we all got into my mom’s van and headed over to Florida! Blair and my nieces headed down from Nashville too, so we are all enjoying the sand, the surf and the sun this week. In fact, I’m sitting on the balcony of our condo listening to the waves crash and enjoying the beautiful view of the ocean as I type. 🙂

Although this post isn’t to talk about the ocean (I’ll fill you in on that later). Let’s go back to last week and the busy week of wedding planning that I had.

One of the most important things when it comes to wedding planning is figuring out where you are going to hold the shindig. When it comes to our wedding, we’d thought long and hard about this. My real dream was to have a backyard wedding. Although, my backyard could use a lot of work to get it into prime wedding shape. Plus, we weren’t sure where to park people, if the yard would be too muddy at that time of year, and where would we put people if it is pouring down rain? All of those being slightly large problems when it comes to creating a low-level of stress on your wedding day. It was going to be too much work and stress to try to go that direction with the wedding. We also considered just having the ceremony there and having the reception elsewhere, but I didn’t really want people to have to drive to separate places for both. I thought it would be easier and more relaxing to hold all the festivities in one location. Plus we would still encounter the same issues of rain/mud/parking/etc. at home just for the ceremony. And have to find somewhere we liked for the reception and decorate that too.

So…we moved on to a new plan. We tried to think of any places close to home that have pretty outdoors and then indoor areas for the reception to be held. That is when it hit us. (Cue in title) Southern Illinois is slightly becoming famous for its abundance of vineyards and wineries! They would have pretty, manicured grounds outside (that someone else would be responsible for keeping in shape) and also indoor buildings and also outdoor areas that are specifically for events and special occasions! How perfect!

That idea began a string of craziness to try to head to as many of the closest wineries as we could in the few short days that I was at home. My mom, my older brother, Blake, and I all set out on this quest. We made it to 7 or 8 or so of them, all roughly within an hour or so of my house. (We barely scratched the surface of the wineries in southern IL though, the more we went to, the more of them we realized there were. I think there must be at least 30 or so in Southern Illinois!)

Of the ones that we visited, several were too small for the wedding (as far as the indoor area goes) or had pretty vineyards, but not really much more than grapevines. One we saw and liked, but it was way too over-commercialized and expensive. I wanted something a little more simple, but still pretty and with a pretty view out over the outside. Only one of the ones we saw really fit this bill and it actually happened to be the first one that we went and looked at.

Bella Terra Winery. It means “beautiful land” in Italian.

Want a tour of the place? Good. Here we go:

Here is the view as you drive up. There are rows of grapevines on the right side and pretty views over the hills on the left side. Along with a pretty white fence.

White fence and hill views.

You drive up, pass the building on the grounds and park in front of this pond.

Here is the building on the grounds. Pretty on the outside with a nice columned wrap around patio/porch.

The porch/patio on the side has a view over the pond in the back.

There is also a nice sized two part deck on the side in front of the pond.

There is also a built-in bocce ball court. Although I have no clue how to play bocce ball.

The front patio/porch is pretty big.

Looking back at the front of the building, there are pretty doors that open into the inside.

The views out the front are really pretty.

There is a white pergola with plenty of space for seating and entrance of the wedding party down the aisle directly from inside the building.

With really pretty views behind the pergola.

A view of the hills to one side.

Views of the grapevines on the other.

Walking through the grapevines is pretty too.

The grapes all neatly in pretty little rows.

The outside was exactly what I wanted. Beautiful. Loved the white fence, the views, the hills, the pergola, everything. Although everything has a few downsides. In this case, it was the smallish inside of the building and its not-so-pretty decor.

It does only seat about 120 people inside. (and we currently have many more than that on our guest list) However, it does have additional seating outside on the porches and decks, so we should be fine, unless it pours down rain. They also didn’t have our original date that we picked available. So we had to move the date to June 2, 2012, the next weekend. But as Bob pointed out, 6×2=12, so an anniversary date of 6-2-12 should be easy to remember.

Anyway, we had to act fast if we wanted to reserve the place, so after thinking it over and weighing all the options, we went for it! We reserved it and set our date for June 2, 2012! Yay! We know where we are getting married! Now it is so much easier to know that the date is officially official and we can move on to caterers, photographers, decorations and whatnot! (All of which I did talk to and research last week as well–in addition to wedding dress shopping!)

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One Year Away

****UPDATE—because of the venue we had to change this original date for the wedding to June 2, 2012****

It seems like just yesterday that we got engaged, right? It has been 5 months since then actually. On one hand, I’m just ready for the wedding to hurry up and get here and on the other hand, I have so much to plan and take care of before then, that I hope it doesn’t get here before I have time to get everything done.

It took us a while to actually decide on a date for the wedding, even though we were thinking May 2012 from the beginning. I’ve always wanted to get married in the Spring. It is such a pretty time, it is a time that symbolizes new beginnings, I love the plants and flowers blooming then, the colors I wanted for the wedding were all bright, spring-y colors, and it just fit in the best with our schedule. Both being college students, if we wait until the end of May in 2012 to get married, Drew will have graduated and will (hopefully) have been offered a full-time position (He works full time now and has several promising options through the places he works) so we will be okay financially as a newlywed couple. Not only will Drew be out of school, but I will be out of school for the summer as well. I will be out of school for at least two weeks or so before the wedding, to finish up last minute things and then we are free to travel to southern Illinois for the wedding and then go on a honeymoon without having to worry about missing school. We will then have the whole summer to get situated into married life and whatnot before the fall and I begin my senior year at Tulane.

When looking at it that way, that is really the only time that we have as an option. I don’t want to wait farther into the summer, because I want the wedding to be outside, and it is way too hot for an outdoor wedding in the summer. We briefly considered moving the wedding up to this fall, but we don’t have any breaks from school long enough to be able to pull off a wedding and a honeymoon. Planning the wedding will be stressful enough, I don’t want it to have to worry about it combined with the school season as well. The only downside to next spring is that from the time of our engagement it was a year and a half away. I’m starting to realize that wedding planning almost starts to drag on over that long of a period. I’d almost rather the wedding be sooner so that I can get the planning stuff mapped out and done with. Since the wedding is still a year away, there is a lot of stuff that I can’t really do yet as far as the planning goes. But it is all still hanging over my head as stuff I need to do.

Anyway, I’ll stop babbling on and on about it all. I’m getting ready to go home for a visit to hopefully get quite a bit of wedding stuff taken care of. My plans for the summer include getting as much wedding planning, shopping, and designing done so that anything I would have to do during the school year is at a minimum. We’ve already taken our engagement pictures (that I still need to edit and post!) and I’ve been working on a design for the save-the-dates and the coordinating invitations, thank you cards, and all the other wedding paperie. I’ll let you know whenever any other important wedding details get taken care of.

But back to the whole reason for this post. Did anyone remember the date we set for the wedding that I mentioned back in this post? May 26, 2012. Well guess what? It is May 26, 2011. That means our wedding is exactly one year away today! I can’t believe that on this day next year, I’ll be walking down the aisle!

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Pictures in the Park

Today has been a ridiculously busy day. We had about a thousand errands to run and have been rushing around non-stop. It was very productive though. Mainly because we got one thing done that we’ve been needing to do for months. We took our engagement pictures! How lovely and exhausting at the same time! Today was a beautiful day and we knew that we were going to be too busy to do it for about another month if we didn’t do it today, so we finally gave in and got them done! (Plus I think that watching the Royal Wedding this morning got me in the lets-get-wedding-planning mood!) I hinted around about them before, here and here.

I still have lots of editing to do. Lots of sun spots and people and cars to remove and lighting and coloring to edit. So it might be a while before I have them ready to show. Mainly because for the next several days, I am going to be doing nothing but studying for final exams. But I will leave you with this one little sneak peak:

I was somewhat irritated during the whole thing because there were a bunch of rude people in the park that saw us taking pictures and refused to move and get out of the shot. I wanted to push them in the creek. It made me so mad. It takes a lot of work to get all the stuff together for these pictures. But anyway, when I look through them and see at least a few that captured the moment perfectly, it makes it all worth it. 🙂

I hope to share the rest with you soon!

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