Updo Inspiration and Realization

Guys, if there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s this:  I’m a proud, naturally curly girl.

This is from a few years ago with my Bromadillo and Lil Dillo. This is just about as long as my hair has ever been.

A more recent photo, having a particularly good hair day!

Now, don’t get me wrong–I’ve certainly have had times in my life when I wished I had ANYTHING but naturally curly hair, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to appreciate the sheer convenience of it.  That being said, there are still times when I want to straighten it or use curlers on it to give it a more polished look:

Barrel curls at last year’s annual charity ball.

Board straight with the help of a friend!

When it came to deciding how to wear my hair on our wedding day, though, the choice seemed as natural as the hairs on my head–I’m gonna roll with my natural texture.

There were a couple of reasons for the decision.  First of all, I know I’m probably going to be super stressed about a million little things on my wedding day, and the last thing I’m going to want to worry about is whether my hair will hold up through the course of the entire day.  Leaving it in its naturally curly state means I won’t have to worry about straight locks frizzing out of control or synthetic curls losing their shape.  A good, second reason is that Mr. A LOVES my naturally curly hair and says it’s the first thing he noticed about me.  Finally, I don’t truly feel like “me” without a head full of crazy, unruly curls.

This leaves us to potential ideas for hair inspiration.  I knew I wanted an updo, and something that might lend itself to being a bit on the retro side while still working with my naturally curly texture.  (I have to get on my soapbox here for a minute, though:  When one types in “naturally curly updos” into Google images, majority of the women in the photos do NOT have naturally curly hair.  Trust me, there’s a difference.)

Now, I’ve had to style my own hair for many a community theatre production in the past, so I figured I would give this style a shot.  Some teasing, a lot of hairspray,  few bobby pins and about twenty minutes later, I ended up with this:

From the front. Sincere apologies for the crazy eyes.

From the back.

Close up of the back.

Granted, this was a QUICK run-through of what I might do with my hair on my wedding day, but I definitely think its workable.  Some shine serum on the ends, a bit more volume, neater twists on the sides and perhaps a few pieces pulled out to frame my face, and this look is good to go!  I might even throw in a jeweled hair comb for good measure–who knows?  It’s definitely on my short list of possible wedding day hairstyles.

Odds are I’ll by styling my own hair on my wedding day, for the mere fact that I just don’t trust anyone else enough to put my hair in their hands, with the exception of Mama Dillo.  Whatever the case may be, this hair trial definitely gave me the confidence boost I needed to seriously consider doing my own hair for the wedding.  If I chicken out the morning of, however, I know Mama Dillo would be more than happy to take the reigns over for me.  After all, she taught me everything I know about hair care!

Are you considering doing your own hair for your wedding day?  Any naturally curly girls out there going with their natural texture, like me?

That’s What I Like About You

When I think about the ways that Mr. A and I are compatible, the first things that come to mind are more traditional elements of a successful relationship:  respect, honesty, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, etc.  And it’s all true–Mr. A and I have built a relationship based on respect and compassion for one another, which has sort of blossomed into “OMG, I can’t live another second without this man.”  But, let’s be honest–I think we’ve all pondered over the kind of “out of the box” reasons why our significant others are perfect for us; I think it’s especially true early on in the relationship when we’re really just trying to convince ourselves that this person could be “the one” (or maybe that’s just me.)

But I like thinking about the quirky reasons why Mr. A was made for me, because I’m pretty sure there isn’t anyone else out there in the world who would satisfy all of the unconventional, wacky reasons why he has me unequivocally twitterpated and antsing to become his wife.

1.  We have the same ridiculous sense of humor, and he’s the only one who belly laughs at my jokes.  Also, when he gets really tickled about something, he laughs like Winnie the Pooh.  Have you seen a 6’3 boulder of a man laugh like Winnie the Pooh?  (FYI:  It’s adorable.)

2.  We have something of a family tradition on my dad’s side where if you have a son, you give him the initials of JHH.  My grandpop’s initials are JHH, Papa Dillo’s are JHH, and Bromadillo’s are JHH.  I swore that I would marry a guy with a last name that started with H just so I could carry on the tradition.  Guess what Mr. A’s initials are?  JPH!

3.  I can’t stay mad at him, even when he gives me death looks.

There’s absolutely nothing threatening about this look.

4.  We share a love of Adam Sandler movies.  When we were still pretty new to the relationship, Mr. A asked me what my idea of the “perfect day” would be–I told him a two-liter of cherry Coke, white cheddar popcorn and an all day marathon of Adam Sandler movies.  Before I left to go home that summer, he made that exact day happen for us.  It was glorious.

5.  His family is heavy on July birthdays–my birthday is in July.  My family is heavy on November birthdays, and his birthday is in November.

6.  I’m a Cancer and he’s a Scorpio.  I don’t really follow astrology, but our signs are apparently ideally compatible.

7.  We balance each others’ interests and personalities in perfect ways.  For example–I like to read books; Mr. A likes to watch the movie adaptations.  In the end, we both get to enjoy the story, just in our own different ways.

8.  I love to cook–he loves to eat whatever I make and that sweet guy will even finish a plate of something that I know tastes awful just because I made it.

9.  Whenever we play board games that require partners, Mr. A and I never lose.  We make an awesome team.

10.  He will humor me and go along with whatever I suggest, even when that means having to dress up as Fred Flintstone for Halloween.

Literally the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.

11.  If I had a flat tire on the side of the road or forgot my debit card when I went grocery shopping, Mr. A would drop everything to come and rescue me.  No questions asked.  And I would 100%, without a doubt do the same for him.

During our first Christmas together.

What are some of the somewhat unconventional reasons why you love your significant other and feel like he or she is “the one”?

DIY–Save the Date Reveal!

I think it’s safe to assume that MAJORITY of the potential wedding guests who were sent Save the Date cards have by now received them–I still have a few I haven’t mailed yet because I haven’t gotten their mailing addresses, but hopefully this doesn’t ruin it for them!

When it comes to sending out Save the Dates, there are TONS of options out there today.  However, I needed our Save the Dates to have a few specific qualities:

1. They needed to be relatively inexpensive.  I’m not made of money, y’all.  I wish I was, though.
2. We wanted to be able to utilize some of our favorite engagement photos, courtesy of the fabulous James from Ballenger Photography.  Since we went ahead and did an engagement session, we want to be able to use them at every opportunity possible, dagnabbit!
3. We wanted something simple and fuss-free that I could potentially design myself and send off to be printed somewhere.

Our search for the great Save the Date ended where I figured it would.  Ladies and gentlemen, the mister and I have hopped on the Vistaprint bandwagon.

At first I was kind of disappointed that we had settled on doing the postcard thing, simply because it’s already been done so many times by couples in the past.  But “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Am I right?  Anyway, I can see why so many brides decide to go the Vistaprint route, because it really is incredibly simple and fuss-free.  Check item #3 off that list!

I designed both the front and back of the postcard myself after looking at some other save the date postcards floating around on the web for inspiration.  I used some of mine and Mr. A’s favorite engagement session photos (check #2 off that list, now)  incorporated the Albemarle Swash and Poor Richard fonts (which seem to be emerging as the unofficial ones we’ll be using on everything wedding related) and infused some of our wedding colors into the mix.

One of Vistaprint’s many promotional deals  gave me the opportunity to order these lovelies at an extremely discounted rate (check #1 off that list, baby!) so I uploaded our front and back designs to the website, placed my order, and waited less than a week before my bundle of 100 pristine postcards arrived on my doorstep.  I honestly couldn’t be more happy with how they turned out, and I highly recommend Vistaprint to anyone who’s looking to get some postcards made!

Okay, enough chitter chatter.  Onto the photos!

I used a simple corner rounder to give the postcards a polished look.  I seriously love the way they came out!

I left the backside of the postcard in grayscale, mostly because I didn’t want to pay the extra bucks to upgrade them to full color.  I kind of like the way the gray looks on the back, though.  It also made the mailing addresses stand out better than they probably would have if the backside had been in color, too.

I ended up mailing one of these to myself so I could see what they looked like when they came through the mail.  The only problem was the post office had stamped a big old ugly bar code across the “formal invitation to follow” on the top, which bummed me out a bit.  Aside from that, though, they seemed to look relatively nice even after being beaten up by the postal service!

As a side note, I’ve got to be honest here, readers–dropping those babies off at the post office made this wedding thing feel really “real” for the first time, you know what I mean?  It was like we were OFFICIALLY announcing our plans to our friends and family that we are, in fact, tying the knot on March 16th of next year.  It was such an exciting feeling (and also a little nerve-wracking, too!)  I can only imagine what it’s going to feel like when we send off the official invitations!

Did you sent save the dates to friends and family after you had settled on a date and location for the wedding?  At what point in the wedding planning did it get “real” for you?

We’re Bringing “Johnny” Back

You guys, I seriously want to have some freakin’ delicious food at our wedding reception.

While the town we’re getting married in isn’t devoid of delicious meal options, it does lack variety.  In fact, every single wedding I’ve ever been to in my hometown has been catered by the same place, which serves up some admittedly delicious barbeque (we ARE in Texas, after all!)  While I do love some me some perfectly smoked brisket jazzed up with a splash of tangy, spicy barbeque sauce and a hearty side of green beans riddled with pieces of bacon, I kind of want to serve something different to our guests at our reception.

Going along the same vein, I also want to offer our guests a more cost-effective dinner, so I started thinking about meals that were relatively inexpensive to make, filled up my belly, and tasted delicious.  What kind of foods comfort me and make me happy?  What’s one meal I always feel satisfied with after I finish eating?  And then it hit me.

Pasta.

I don’t know about you guys, but I have yet to meet someone that DOESN’T enjoy some kind of pasta dish.  Everybody loves Italian food, right?  It’s certainly my favorite type of food, and Mr. A’s favorite dinner involves delving into a large, deep dish supreme pizza from Pizza Hut, which is almost like Italian food, so it seems like the most natural choice for us.

The only problem is there isn’t an Italian restaurant in our town, so I wasn’t originally sure how to go about finding a caterer willing to fix up an Italian feast for our guests with such limited resources.  I was kind of nervous at how much it would cost to outsource the catering from a nearby town, but even extending out 30 miles there didn’t seem to be any establishments that fit the bill; that is, until I realized that chain restaurants sometimes also cater.

Enter the garlic-infused solution to my problem:  Johnny Carino’s.

Johnny Carino’s is a moderately priced Italian restaurant chain comparable to that of an Olive Garden.  The restaurant had changed its name to just Carino’s, but I was recently told that they’re bringing the “Johnny” back (not sure why he left in the first place…)  At any rate, there’s a Johnny Carino’s about 40 minutes from our hometown, so I shot them an email and was contacted by a catering consultant, Shannon, who gave me an initial quote and helped me set up a complimentary menu tasting at the nearest restaurant location.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were promptly shown to a table and were offered complimentary soft drinks while we waited for the restaurant manager and catering specialist to see us.  I brought Mr. A, Mama Dillo and Lil Dillo along for the ride, and we took advantage of the time waiting to snap a few gratuitous pics:

Look at those photogenic beauties!

Ready to get our grub on!

Not much later, we were warmly greeted by the restaurant manager and one of the catering coordinators, Matthew, who immediately got to work asking us all sorts of important questions like where the wedding was taking place, approximately how many people we might be expecting, and what amenities were available at the reception venue.  While Matthew asked us all the right questions, the restaurant manager went to work getting the meals we selected to try ready in the kitchen.  He promptly returned with a plate of penne Alfredo, chicken parmigiana, roasted potatoes, and seasoned green beans.  Everything was DELICIOUS.

Chicken parmigiana. YUM.

Creamy penne alfredo!

I think what I loved the most about the entire menu tasting experience was that the catering coordinator really listened to what we wanted and didn’t try to up-sell us anything.  In fact, he even went so far as to say that our original price quote we had gotten online was way too much food for the amount of people we were expecting.  He also advised us against the original fettuccine noodles for the Alfredo sauce and explained that fettuccine tends to not transport well and is difficult to serve, at which point we settled on the heartier penne noodles.  We also decided to swap out the spaghetti noodles for penne to go with the chicken parmigiana.  Ultimately, our guests will get the choice of either a meat option, a meatless option, or a little of both; they’ll also get their fills of house salads with a variety of dressings and all the fresh baked bread they like.

Also, I should probably fill you all in now:  we’re doing something called a “serviced buffet,” which basically means staff from Johnny Carino’s will serve guests as they come through the buffet line.  I know brides tend to be on the fence about the idea of a buffet, but for our crowd and our budget, I think a serviced buffet is a nice middle area between a regular serve yourself buffet and a full sit down serviced dinner.  The staff will keep the line moving, people can pick which entree they want, and we’ll get to save some of the money we could have spent on the full-serviced sit down dinner option.  The cool part is, however, that the Johnny Carino’s staff does serve the wedding party, so I don’t have to stand in line in my big ol’ poofy wedding dress!

However, I’ve got to tell you the absolute best part of all of this:  even with the transportation fees, gratuities, and serviced buffet charges, the entire thing still comes out to less than $9 per head.  I DEFINITELY thought going with a restaurant chain outside of the city limits wouldn’t be within the realms of our budget, but I was so wrong.  We’ll get to serve our guests some yummy Italian food without breaking the bank, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

What kinds of food are you hoping to serve at your reception?  Did you have to outsource catering from another town?  What do you think about “serviced buffets”?

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

Of all the decisions a bride must make in regard to her wedding day, there’s one specific area of the budget that can honestly, truly cause her to go bonkers:  the flowers.

Now I know what you’re thinking–a wedding just isn’t a wedding without a bountiful supply of beautiful, fragrant blooms scattered throughout the ceremony and reception spaces.  I mean, flowers have an important role to play in the wedding decor between making a statement in the bride’s bouquet and fancying up centerpieces for the tables at the reception.  Sure, that two thousand bucks you’ll have to square away out of your wedding budget for a florist seems like a lot of money right now, but it’s so worth it.  A wedding just isn’t a wedding without flowers.

Well, I agree–sort of.

I think flowers are an important part of the wedding day–after all, what other occasions will a girl have to carry a bouquet of beautiful flowers except for when she’s a bride walking down the aisle?  Is there anything more romantic and magical than being surrounded by Mother Nature’s gorgeous blooms on the most wonderful day of one’s life? 

Now who wants to give me two thousand bucks so I can go blow them on a delivery truck full of over priced, temperamental flowers that’ll be dead by the end of the week?

Didn’t think so.

You guys, wedding flowers are so impractical.  Just the mere idea of spending that much money for something that’ll give me nothing more than a small piece of satisfaction on my wedding day simply isn’t cutting it for me.  I personally would rather spend more money on, say, the food.  Or cake.  Something edible (can you tell it’s lunch time here?)

Silk flowers, on the other hand, could save me a decent amount of money, simply because I could arrange them myself MONTHS before the wedding and store them somewhere nice until the big day rolls around.  They also will never, ever die.  AND, I won’t have to worry about them looking like poo toward the end of the night, whereas the real deals could very well start to wilt and look sad when that 11 o’clock hour rolls around.

Except, there’s just something so magical and romantic about real flowers that seem to get lost in the synthetic translation.  So, what’s a girl to do?

Well I’ll have my cake and I’ll be damned if I can’t eat it, too.

In an effort to save a bit of a blow to the budget and to keep my sanity in check, we’ve decided to use a combination of real and faux flowers on our wedding day.  The real flowers will be used in the bride’s and bridesmaids’ bouquets, the corsages for the mothers, and the boutonierres for the guys (basically in places where the photographer will be taking lots of photographs).  The faux flowers will be used in places like in our pomander ball pew decorations.  Reception centerpieces aren’t even in the equation–we’re doing some non-floral garden centerpieces.  Kind of an oxymoron, I know.  More on that later.

What do you think about flowers at weddings?  Are they important?  Are you using real flowers, silk flowers, or a combination of the two?

Something Borrowed

In the spirit of doing things out of order, I’ve decided to wear Mama Dillo’s veil on my wedding day.  It’s a bit ironic since I haven’t even gone shopping for my dress yet, but I’m totally psyched Mama Dillo offered it up to me, and it can’t hurt to have some of that good, successful marriage juju on me when I walk down the aisle on the big day.  I’ve decidedly declared Mama Dillo’s veil as my “something borrowed” (I obviously intend to return it to her after the ceremony just in case maybe Lil Dillo or someone wants to wear it on her wedding day!)

Now,  my parents got married in 1987, which means Mama Dillo’s veil isn’t exactly…subtle.  HOWEVER, in terms of how 80’s veils tended to look on brides back in the day, hers wasn’t too bad.  It wasn’t tulle attached to a hat or to a weird halo she wore down on her forehead–in fact, as far as 80’s veils go, Mama Dillo’s was pretty tame.  Maybe it’s because she was married in the late 80’s and styles had toned down a bit, or maybe she just had good taste. 😉 (All upcoming photos by Miss Armadillo.)

The veil is basically a simple, two-tiered veil with a finished edge–the only 80’s tell tale signs are the tulle poof at the crown and the pearl encrusted headpiece that holds everything together:

It’s pretty wrinkled from being closed up in a small cardboard box for 25 years, but I’m confident we can get the veil back to tip top shape in time for the wedding in March.  I’ll have to make some alterations to it to sort of pull it out of the 1980’s, but I definitely think it’s workable.  The bonus is, wearing Mama Dillo’s veil means I don’t have to blow a hundred bucks on a veil of my own, and that’s a hundred bucks I can use toward something more important on the wedding day.  (To be honest, my wedding veil wasn’t even something I was initially hung up on in terms of wedding planning–I’d just as soon walk down the aisle without one at the thought of blowing some major simoleons on a piece of tulle attached to a hair comb.  This solution is both more cost effective AND meaningful.  It doesn’t get any better than that.)

Are you incorporating a piece of a family member’s wedding attire into your own for good measure?  (And does anyone have any tricks to get 25 year-old wrinkles out of tulle?)

DIY–Ceremony Program Mock-Up

Happy DIY Day, lovely people!

Today’s post is all about ceremony programs, which, arguably means I’m doing this wedding planning stuff a BIT out of order considering we have NONE of the ceremony details hashed out yet, but bear with me–when my eyes fell on this lovely wedding program by Martha Stewart, it was love at first sight:

Image via Martha Stewart Weddings/ Photo by Luca Trovato

There was something so refreshingly simple about the entire layout, and I loved how that extra little touch was added by the band around the center.  Granted, these are letterpressed, but I figured I could get the same kind of feel with my trusty home printer–so, I went to work.

I designed everything in Microsoft Word (which, honestly, is a pain in the bazoo, so if you have a different program like Publisher or something, I would recommend that.)  All I did was set the page layout to landscape, added 3 columns, then threw in some place holder info to see how it would all look (all upcoming photos by Miss Armadillo.)

I used the “Albemarle Swash” font for the headings, and “Poor Richard” for majority of the text.  It was printed on some nice, linen-textured cream colored cardstock I ordered from paperandmore.com, and overall, I really like the way it turned out.

However, I thought instead of printing the names and wedding date on the band like Martha did, I would find a way to add some of my illustrious wedding ribbon to the front.  Here’s the solution I came up with:

Some olive green cardstock and a few trials and errors later, this is what resulted.  The bands are a lot easier to make than I thought they would be.  The paper band is two inches in height and 11 inches in length, and is simply folded around the program and connected with a small piece of double sided tape.  The ribbon was equally easy to add–you just cut two six-inch strips of whatever ribbon you like, punch two holes equal distance from the folds on the front, hot glue the ribbon to the backside, and then thread them through the holes.  Tie a pretty bow on the front, and voila!

While my version may not be as glorious or elegant as Martha’s, you can be rest assured that mine was made with love and a little handmade charm!  The super great part is that they’re really inexpensive to make and easy to assemble.  The only slightly tedious part will be cutting 500 ribbon strips for the bands, but I think it’s something I can manage over the course of 8 months.

One decision down, a bazillion more to go–I’m so excited, y’all!

What ideas do you have for your ceremony programs?  Did you do a trial run before making your decision to see how the finished product would look?

You Can Stand Under My Umbrella

Since we’re in the weird, transitionary phase in the journey of wedding planning, I’ve been scouring the net for inspiration photos to add to my increasingly gigantic collection of what I like to call my “wedding look.”  I’ve gathered enough inspiration that I think we’ve solidified the overall vision and over-arching theme for the day, which gives me more time to focus on things like meaningless (albeit breathtaking) details.

Like, for example, umbrellas.

Umbrellas have no significant meaning to me other than keeping my curly hair in check on rainy days–I don’t have an umbrella collection, I don’t know every song ever written about umbrellas, and I don’t dream about umbrellas when I go to bed at night.  But stick them in a wedding scenario, and z’omg, they’re GORGEOUS.

Photo by Kate Magee Photography

If I think about it closer to the wedding day, I’m really considering renting a sweet, romantic, lace umbrella from Bella Umbrella, an online umbrella rental company that specializes in vintage wedding umbrella rentals.  Most of the more ornate umbrellas are $20 to rent, and you get it for 5 days.  I’ve got my eye on this one:

Image via Bella Umbrella

Is it a necessary purchase?  Nope.  Will it have a huge impact on the wedding day?  Not a chance.

Will it provide an opportunity for some freakin’ sweet wedding photos?  You betcha!

Are you currently obsessed about a random “wedding day” item that really has no effect on the wedding itself?  Are you drooling over the uber romantic photo ops with wedding umbrellas like I am?  Has anyone been a Bella Umbrella customer and could share their experience?

It’s Better to Give Than to Receive…

…but receiving also feels pretty darn good.

A few months back, my Gaga (AKA “The Perfume Lady“) surprised the mister and I with our first official wedding gift!  It was particularly special because it was completely unexpected and out of the blue.

Wanna know what she gave us? (All upcoming photos by Miss Armadillo.)

Our very own fancy flatware!

My Gaga LOVES to go to antique malls and antique stores, and she stumbled upon this beautiful silverplate set by Community during one of her random shopping trips and said she immediately thought of us.  What’s most shocking is that all the pieces are in amazing condition, and it’s an entire set.

From what I’ve gathered on the web, Community is NOW known as Oneida, and on the scale of fancy/expensive flatware, silverplate is the midpoint between stainless steel and silverware.  Basically, I think it’s like stainless steel plated with silver (but I could be wrong about this!)

After a little more research, I found out that our pattern is called “Morning Star” and was made by Community/Oneida in 1948.  It’s a discontinued pattern, obviously, but I really think the design is delicately classy, without being overly ornate.  I love it!

I also love that the set is in its original chest, which makes for good storage and presentation.  Mostly, I just can’t wait to whip these babies out on special occassions and feel like I’ve stepped back into the 1950s as we host some wonderfully fancy dinner parties!  I’m already looking forward to adding to the set over the years, because things like gravy ladles and tomato servers also come in the Morning Star pattern.

Were you surprised by an unexpected or completely thoughtful wedding gift by a family member or friend?  Have you received a wedding gift you didn’t necessarily ask for but were thrilled to receive?

Where We’ll Dance the Night Away

When it came to looking at reception spaces, the options for us were few and far between.  Unfortunately, small town weddings lots of times don’t offer many choices for wedding venues, so many times you’re just stuck with what you get.

Of the three or four reception venue options that were available, one stuck out to us as being the “ideal” wedding reception space–the local civic center.

Image via the Matagorda County Board of Realtors

The local Junior Service League’s annual charity ball is held here every year, and the venue is well kept and includes an equipped kitchen.  Basically, the main room is like a huge, open space–a clean slate, if you will.  Round tables and chairs also come with the venue rental, and luckily for us, it fell within our budget.  What it DOESN’T come with are table linens or any of the “extras” that many wedding reception venues offer.  Fortunately, since the price of renting the place isn’t too steep, we’ll be able to afford to provide the extras ourselves.

Mr. A at this year’s JSL Charity Ball. You can kind of see the reception space in the background. That’s as good of an interior shot as I’ve got. (Photo by Miss Armadillo.)

Although the main room is pretty enormous, there are partitions that can be pulled out to block off sections of the main space to make it a bit more intimate, which is most likely what we’ll do.  Another bonus is that a local hotel is right next to the civic center, which would be a great option for out of town guests to use–that already makes me feel better than letting our family and friends get behind the wheel after a night of celebrating with us.

So, although there weren’t a whole lot of options for us as far as reception spaces go, I do think using the local civic center is the best option for us, and I can’t wait to see what we’ll be able to do to the space to transform it into a dreamy, elegant evening garden party!

Were you limited on your available choices when it cme to picking your reception space?