Heel to Toe

It was out with the glamorous heels and in with the cowboy boots, as I divulged in my last post. I already owned a pair of cowboy boots, which made my wedding day shoe decision rather effortless. I am by no means a girl who wears cowboy boots for the functionality of them, I fully admit to wearing them purely as an accessory. I am, however, a big time country music lover, and there was a time in my life where I could be found every Friday night at the Country bar two-stepping my heart out. At that time my mom gifted me with a pair of nice, for-real cowboy boots. If you have ever owned a pair of cowboy boots, you will know that right off the rack, they aren't the most comfortable shoe known to woman. A pair of cowboy boots is best after being used, you know like roping cattle and feeding the horses. Since I don't do that real stuff, and my two-stepping has slowed down since I met Mr. H, I haven't fully broken in my boots. I have worn them a hand full of times, but they still look brand-spankin' new:

When I went for my dress fitting last Friday, I took my boots with me knowing that I would be wearing them for the ceremony...and if I turned into a two-shoe bride, I would find something with a heel size similar to my boots, for the reception. It was great fun to put on Penelope (that is her new name, thanks to Cinny, who's altering my dress), all pinned up where she will be fitting me properly and add my boots to the ensemble. Here's a peek of my boots-n-dress, before I talk about my fitting process in another post:

After the fitting and then stocking up on goods to start wedding projects, I headed to Ross to kill some time while Mr. Honey headed from Durango (remember, crafting and altering is taking place across the state line in New Mexico), we had a hot date at Olive Garden. I browsed the clothes and the home goods and then the shoes; and unexpectedly came across and instantly purchased these:

I know, even after, I just confessed that my cheap shoe buying habits were changing- oops. They are still boots, but not quite as 'western' as my original boot. These feel more fun and lighthearted, and they are tad more comfortable. The heel is just about the exact same height, score! The next thing I compared is the toe:

The left is Original, the right is New

Yes, the toe. With my original boots, the toe is a bit longer than I'm used to. I have tripped a time or two while scootin' around in these. To do a fair comparison, I will be wearing my new (albeit not authentic) boots out the next time I go dancing. I don't know how I will decide...right now I'm leaning towards the new ones, mainly because they feel like more of my kind of style. But, goodness, I love the realness of my originals. Oh, the decisions of being a bride. 

Were you set on a wedding shoe and then surprised when you found something new and/or different?

These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

I used to have a spending problem; a spending-money-on-shoes-I-never-wear problem. I used to wear heels nearly every day and I loved buying heels. But I was a cheap shoe buyer. Like Ross and Target, cheap. I always wanted to drop a couple Benjamin's on a pair of shoes, but I just never could whip out the credit card for a pair. As a result, my closet was filled with cheap heels. A couple years back BM Hogan had a shoe intervention of sorts; she made me realize that the majority of my shoes had never.been.worn. Since then, I have slowly gotten rid of shoes and I'm down to a shoe rack with twelve pairs; okay this doesn't include my flip flops, tennis shoes and boots, but I did reduce my collection to about a quarter of it's original glory. My shoe habits have since changed pretty drastically.

Four out of the five days at work, I wear my stand by super small wedge and if it's not that wedge, it's a pair of kitten heels...and on the weekend? I'm either in flip flops or Ugg's, depending on the season. Now, when I wear a normal heel, it kills my feet. Like aching in five minutes, get these damn things off me now! It makes me beyond sad that the muscles that used to allow me to rock heels everyday, are gone. Why am I telling you all of this? Obviously it relates to my wedding day shoes and the fact that I will not be wearing these, or anything remotely similar:

Image via Weddingism

Le Sigh. They are so stunning and so wedding-y, but too much heel for me..oh, yes, and we are getting married in January in Colorado. Snow and heels isn't the most ideal combination. I had to begin thinking about other options that would work for our winter wedding. Ugg's were the first obvious choice, I loved seeing Mrs. Champagne sport the Ugg's for her snowy photo shoot. I even told my bridesmaid's early on in planning that I wanted us to all wear Ugg's, but this was all premature. (Although seeing Miss Sunhat's post on sparkly Ugg's made me want them again...what's with my indecisiveness?!) Sometime after we settled on our rustic venue, mismatched dresses and a final color palette, I came across this picture:

Image via Style Me Pretty/Photo by Watson Studios



I know, I know...I have already referenced this picture, but it is like this picture was meant for my inspiration file; it's perfect for the look I'm going after. That's right, the Honey 'maids and I will be showcasing cowboy boots for our wedding! They strike the perfect balance of warm and stylish. They fit so perfectly with our venue and majority of the girls already own a pair of cowboy boots. For the couple that don't, I'm searching high and low for just the right pair for them. As for me, I will share my story about boots next.

In case you need convincing that girls in dresses and cowboy boots is just pure awesome sauce, here you go:

Image via Once Wed/Photo by Steven Myers Photography

Image via Style Me Pretty/Photo by Jose Villa Photo 

The Sand Dollar Wedding!

Image via Weddingbee/Photo by Scott V

Did your wedding season have an influence on your wedding shoes? Who else had/has a cheap shoe obsession? Let's talk shoes (and boots), hive!

How Facebook Saved Us

Being without a photographer is not a fun place to be. I worried big time about this and mostly kept my concerns to myself; I knew bringing it up every time I had the thought pass through my mind would only stress and annoy the mister. Sure we talked about it but it always came back to: "We can't afford what you want, Miss Honey". Hrmph. Somehow, though, I just had this feeling that it would be okay. We had a couple leads from other  And then the answer came in the form of a Facebook status update, which I very well could have 'liked' one million times.

Image via The Atlanta Journalism-Constitution

A friend of mine from college, was just starting in the wedding photography business and was looking for couples to take a risk with him and allow him to shoot their wedding and use the pictures in his portfolio. With risk, comes reward, and our reward for taking a chance with a new wedding photographer was the price. Ready for this? It starts with 'n' and ends with 'a'...or starts with 'z' and ends with 'h'. Give up? Nada, Zilch...Free!

Image from Cheezburger.com

While we do realize the huge gamble we are taking here, all of our hesitations were put to rest when we met with Brandon, of Studio BSL, last week. We met in his framing studio and learned that he has years and years of photography experience. He has most recently been working in commercial model photography, but also offers a creative talent when it comes to shooting action and still shots. The trade off here is that he doesn't have any proof, if you will, of being a successful wedding photographer. Here is an example of his non-wedding photography, it's stun.ning, right? The guy has talent:

Image by Brandon of Studio BSL

The icing on the cake is that Brandon's specialty and where he intends on fitting into the wedding industry is with the highly coveted wedding films. He has a branch of his business devoted to films, called Silver Summit Films. He has shot a few wedding films, which to no surprise, I was in love with. His second shooter (both photography and film) comes from the empire known as Disney, so needless to say, the Honey's are frantically working the budget to see if we can pull it together to get a film of our wedding day. We are hoping that by saving a ton of dough in the photo area we will be able to offer our gratitude to Brandon with the purchase of a film...double and triple crossing our fingers.

From Silver Summit Films on Vimeo.

We feel beyond lucky to have this opportunity essentially fall in our laps and on the flip side we are loving that we can help an up-and-coming wedding photographer build his portfolio. Being that we are both risk takers, we are a-okay with taking this chance on a photographer, especially when the price is right and the skills are there.

Would you ever take a gamble with your wedding photography like this?! Who else would jump at the opportunity?

Movin' and Shakin'

We are down to the five month countdown and I feel like I am finally making moves in the wedding planning arena. We have been engaged for just over a year now, and there have been plenty of times that I didn't feel like I was doing a good job as a bride-in-planning. I felt sub-par with my capabilities, even though I had the vision, I couldn't jump start the actual process. It didn't help that I was a devoted reader of Weddingbee, and read the chronicles of brides executing and finalizing all their details. But me? I didn't want to think about food or lodging or linens. I spent all my wedding brain on getting inspired but never acting on that inspiration. How in the h-e double hockey sticks was I going to get this thing put together? Well last week the wedding planning dam broke loose and I began checking things off the list at an insanely fast pace. Who would have guessed that one little purchase would be such a monumental event?

The well received culprit, a purchase from Zulily:

Personal Picture...Sneak Peek of Flower Girl Attire!

Then I started this Pom Pom crafting project, which I'm now slightly addicted to:

Yes the pile isn't that big yet, but this was a quick 45 minutes!

We visited the site Open Ministry for a very important person in our wedding. I also got myself a custom listing set up with an adorable Etsy chop called IttyBitty Wood Shoppe. Hint: they make cute things to go on top of yummy things.

We had a date with our venue and a measuring tape this past weekend to figure out how we will set up the space, which means we I get to start putting together more details and planning table decorations:

Image via Style Me Pretty/Photo by Carrie Patterson

My dress will be unzipped from her bag this week and will be put on for the first time since I bought her, for my first official fitting. This calls for me to have all sorts of things lined up by then, like shoes and my under-pretties.

She's patiently waiting!

I discovered fabric rosette jewelry somewhere along the way: 

Image via Little Birdies Secrets

Last, but the farthest thing from the least; remember our photographer dilemma? Well, I'm going to leave you hanging with this super-duper-huge-smile-inducing teaser: we found a photographer that fits our vision, has crazy ridiculous talent, and is far below our budget. While I'm dying to divulge the goods, the full story deserves it's own post. This is just scratching the surface of things that came to be in the last week so needless to say it has been such a huge week for the Honey wedding and I can't wait to share all the goods with you!

Has anyone else felt unproductive as a planning bride? Did you have a purchase that opened your planning floodgates?! Tell me I'm not the only one!

An Unbalanced Act

A balanced wedding party used to be the standard, an equal number of guys and girls standing up on behalf of the bride and groom. Nowadays, we brides-to-be get to be more creative with our wedding party. A Man of Honor? Heck yeah. A best gal friend? Absolutely. More 'maids than 'men? Go for it, and that's what we've got goin' on.

I've thrown out my number a couple of times but for good measure I will remind you that I have eight bridesmaids. Our wedding party will be a total of thirteen, not including the troop of 'lil ones. Simple math tells me this can only mean one thing: we have an uneven number of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Me with eight, Mr. Honey with five. An unbalanced wedding party.

Just like Miss Candy Apple and Mrs. Fro Yo, among others, I have embraced that our wedding party is not going to be symmetrical. The majority of our groomsmen will be escorting not only one, but two bridesmaids up and down the aisle. Two girls to one guy; those lucky boys:

Image via Weddingbee/Photo by Mrs. Bee

My initial fears of having odd looking pictures were put to rest when I came across this recap post by Mrs. French Fries, whose uneven wedding party was the furthest thing from obvious or off-looking in pictures:

Image via Weddingbee/Photo by Molly of MThree Studio

This, of course, prompted me to look at more group shots of wedding parties and I was soon drawn to the nontraditional shots of wedding parties. You know, the jumping ones: 

Image via MyWedding.com/Photo by Betwixt (formerly Theorie)

The perfectly unorganized ones:

Image via Elizabeth Anne Designs/Photo by Ameila Strauss Photography

And the casually strolling ones:

Image via Pinterest/Photo by Ben Blood

My point is, that unless you sit and count the number of 'maids to 'men, no one will ever know the difference. And, more importantly, who cares! I wouldn't want to sacrifice any of the girls I have chosen and would not expect Mr. Honey to scrounge up another three guys to stand up with him on our important day just to make it even.

I have a mix of old friends: MOH Stac & I met in preschool and are still super close 26 years later. Her & I became BFF's with BM Scoot and BM Fawn in high school. And new friends: BM Candace and I have known each other for years but became besties in our early twenties, and BM Hogan and I met six years ago. And family: I don't have sisters, but I have my cousins BM K, Mae & Bel. Mr. Honey has BM Cruise who is like a brother from another mother. GM Frank, Steele & Jack who go way back to his childhood in Alabama, and GM Joel who is a newer Colorado friend. Thirteen people standing next to us when we say I Do.

Our groomsmen and bridesmaids will actually be walking the processional together, because (a) I have been in weddings and I much prefer to have someone else share that attention with me and (b) we are getting married with snow on the ground; having lived through 28 years of winters, I know it's easier to walk on snow when you have someone to lean on. I digress.

Logistically, I'm still figuring out the best way to have them paired up. Obviously MOH Stac & BM Cruise will walk together. But that leaves four groomsmen to seven bridesmaids. Oh, and our doggy Zeus. Big Z, as we often call him, is one hundred pounds of pure Weimaraner excitement. He needs a good guide down the aisle.

I could sit and contemplate the best way to pair them up, but I'm going to go ahead and say that it probably won't get hammered out until we are together with all thirteen of them the day before W-Day.

Until then, lets hear who else has the opposite of a standard bridal party? Tell me about your unevenness, Hive!

Our Country Side

I showed off our urban inspired engagement pictures and I hinted that our next shoot would be more "Colorado" inspired. They turned out beautiful and we were once again reminded how lucky we are to have such a talented friend. After being kicked out of the first spot we attempted to shoot at*, we headed to a stunning location in Hermosa Valley right along the Animas River. BM Candace had a vision for this engagement shoot and I think she did an amazing job executing it.

We hauled some props to the field, including pillows and a down comforter, and set up our own little sanctuary in the middle of this beautiful setting:

 The Honey's aren't all serious, so we had to have a pillow fight:

Before the sun set, we took to the river with our canoe, with Zeus swimming along side:

 

And I'll leave you with my absolute favorite picture:

All pictures by Candace Cross Photography

*Side story: we first stopped at a piece of private land, and the owner reluctantly agreed to let us take some pictures there...but as soon as he saw us pulling a futon and blankets out of the truck, he immediately revoked our privileges. We found it amusing, considering he had no idea what our vision actually was, and probably thought the worse.

Tell me about your engagement picture locations, hive!

When He Said Yes

I told you all about how Mr. Honey proposed to me and how he put the beautiful sparkly on my left hand finger. I still catch myself staring at it and admiring the reflection from the multitude of diamonds while cruising in my car, it's distracting at times.


Hanging on a Wildflower

Nestled in Some Beads

Encompassing our Initials

There's more to our story, though. You see Mr. Honey thought it was only fair that if I get bling, he gets bling. "Why should I have to wait for a ring when you get to wear one now?" was his general argument. At the time I had only known of one other couple where the guy had an engagement ring too, and I liked the idea. I wasn't going to take a stab in the dark and try to decide what ring to get him, he can be rather picky, so I wanted his opinion. We went ring shopping and he very quickly decided on the ring that was for him. Done and done. Mr. Honey does not do well with surprises, it drives him crazy knowing that there is something for him that he can't have. Birthday presents? I bet he opens them and re-wraps them. Christmas Presents? He probably searches the whole house to find out what I got him.

Everyday he asked when his ring would be in and I got an unhealthy amount of pleasure watching him squirm (hey, there was nothing he could do to figure this one out, it was my only chance for a real surprise!). The day came in that his ring was ready to be picked up and I had already decided I would propose to him. I had to wait two hours for him to get home and even though he had done all the hard work of actually asking me, I still had this nervous feeling. I can't imagine how he must have felt the day we got engaged. He walked in the door from work and turned the corner to find me kneeling one knee presenting his ring. Half laughing, half anxious, blubbered "Will you marry me?". Mr. Honey was ecstatic, maybe because I proposed, but probably because he had his ring.   

Sitting Proudly



Chillaxin on a Coaster

Mr. Honey choose the Tungsten and Carbide band with the one diamond setting, from Kay Jewelers. It's manly and tough with just the perfect amount of bling.

I love that both of us have rings to symbolize our commitment to each other even prior to our marriage. Sure, we live together and pay bills together, but the fact that the man proudly rocks his ring now, makes my heart smile. Plus our rings look pretty darn good together.



Sparkling against the Rust



Love the Colorado High Country



Adorning more Wildflowers

 

Embellishing some Door Knobs

 Okay, full disclosure: I have always swooned over ring porn posts from other Bees, but I had a crappy point and shoot camera. Mr. Honey took the one million hints I gave over the last few months and gifted me with a schaweeet camera for my birthday recently. Now, my new favorite thing is taking close up shots of pretty things in unexpected locations, and our rings are the perfect models. Check out Mrs. Meerkats helpful hints for photographing your ring here.
Did you propose to your mister? How much do you love ring porn?   

My Beloved's, Part Two

I recently talked about our trial run with the yarn sphere's. A few weekends ago Mama Honey and I met in my kitchen for round two. We stuck to pretty much the same tutorial from my last post, but we changed one thing: we didn't use cornstarch. This made the process much cleaner, we weren't covered in head to toe with the sticky mixture, which also made everything easier and quicker. We set up, and of course the Honey kittens were more than excited about something new and noisy on the floor:



Plastic Table Cloths are SO fun!



We dipped, We Wrapped, We Tied



We were able to get 33 spheres done in about 3 hours; much more efficient than last time. This makes my total count to just over 40. Mama Honey was a genius and brought some drying racks along that made for hanging the drying spheres way easier.



One drying rack of Spheres

Once again I let them dry a full 24 hours and then popped them outside, for my end result:


Hello, Lovers!

Last time I had balloon's pop in the middle of the drying process that resulted in sad spheres. Remember how we opted not to use cornstarch this time? Well for some reason the peach yarn did not hold it's shape at all, and I ended up with loose peach spheres:

I have no earthly idea why only the peach yarn didn't hold, because the others turned out great, and we used the same mix for all the other colors of yarn. I saved the loose spheres, just like I did the sad ones, just in case I decide to go art deco in the venue. I This batch also isn't nearly as sturdy as the previous, I think because of the lack of cornstarch. Who knew that a .99 box of cornstarch was so important! Oh well you can't win them all.

My main reason for writing this follow up post is to tell you to use cornstarch if you are going to use a similar tutorial to craft some yarn spheres! Take it from this Bee, the messiness of the cornstarch is worth it in the end. We are going to do one more batch, just to get a few more peach and gray, but you won't see anymore of my obsession with the yarn spheres until the big day...maybe.

For another alternative tutorial for these amaze-balls, check out Miss Ferris Wheel's tutorial here. Check it out, she did a great job.

Hive, tell me about your DIY projects that you have had to experiment with once, twice or three times!