Saying Yes

So I had tried on dresses and left you in suspense about which one I had chose. I thought about it a lot over the next twenty-four hours and the the way I see it is that a girl could go on and on and...on trying on dress after dress. I seriously could have and would have enjoyed another adventure in wedding dress shopping. However, ff we wanted to do another shopping trip, it would entail us driving either to Albuquerque (3.5 hours away), Grand Junction (4 hours away), Denver (6 hours away) or California (12 hours away...hey while we're driving, might as well go to the beach!). On top gas, you gotta throw in hotel rooms and food and all without a guarantee that I would find a dress that I loved *as much* as I loved the one from earlier that day. On top of the added expenses, it's tiring...fun, but tiring, trying on wedding dresses. Is it possible that the more you try on the more you are indecisive? I was positive that's how I would end up.

Image via Piccsy.com 

But we left New Mexico that day empty handed. When I got back home the first thing I did was Google the dress that I loved...and stared and stared at it. Yup, I wanted it. An extra bonus, the Allure Trunk show offered a 10% discount if I purchased my dress by the following Wednesday. Done and done.

As luck fate would have it, I actually had to drive back to Farmington on Tuesday for a work test. And, AND Silk Bridal was right.across.the.street from the testing location. I called Mama Honey and told her I was going to get the dress. Her response? "Oh goooood! I loved the dress!". If we wouldn't have gone on that Saturday, the trunk show, I would not have been able to try on my dress. I wouldn't be getting the 10% discount. The universe was screaming to me GET THE DRESS! So I listened.

I was excited to go pay for the dress and take pictures, since I wasn't able to before. But, she had moved on to her new bridal salon for another trunk show. That didn't stop me, I threw down the card, signed on the dotted line and was told it would be 3-4 months before my dress came. My wedding dress!!!

Oh what's that? You want to see which one I picked? Okay, here she is:

{Allure 8806}

Yup, the second dress I tried on, on my first wedding dress shopping trip was THE DRESS. The top is flattering with the sweetheart neckline, but the bottom of the dress is my favorite detail. The flowers are soft and flowy and add a little whimsical detail, while still keeping it down to earth for our rustic venue. I love her.

I never had the tearful, angels singing, meltdown moment when I put this dress on BUT I did know as soon as I saw myself in it, that it was the one I wanted. Buying the dress was a big chunk of money and our wedding budget...and buying the dress makes the wedding real. Not that I didn't feel like it wasn't real before. But I bought a wedding dress, the dress I will become a wife in.

Hive, tell me how quickly or not-so-quickly your wedding dress shopping was! Anyone else feel like the universe was telling you something about a certain dress?

Drooling Over Wedding Dresses

I kind of always thought I would be overly eagerly to try on wedding dresses. The truth? It took me eight, yes 8, months to step into a bridal shop. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps the long engagement? Maybe the cost? Could it be that we only have one bridal store in good 'ol Durango? I'd say it's a combo of all three. BUT just because I didn't physically meet some pretty dresses for eight months, that certainly didn't mean that I didn't oogle over many of them online.

I did sign up for The Knot the day after getting engaged. My other immediate email subscription? David's Bridal. So beginning the very first full day of being engaged, I was receiving daily emails from these two websites and obv's they are filled to the brim with wedding dress pictures. I found it far too intimidating to just casually browse the 'web for pictures and I found The Knot to be very sufficient in showing me pictures of thousands of dress all one site. I'm ridiculously intimated by designer gowns and their prices and therefore looking at the fancy-schmancy names of wedding designers sent me with my tail between my legs. After a few months of browsing, I just wasn't too concerned with what I would wear. I felt so un-bridal.

But on the other hand I knew I would find A dress and I knew that I would fall in love with something. Plus, just looking at the pictures on a screen monitor is a bit overwhelming. I mentally told myself (read: told my mom) that I was only interested in attending a David's Bridal, and that I didn't need to spend lots of moolah on a dress for one day. They have dresses for $99 that are perfectly beautiful! The problem was that the nearest David's Bridal is just over three hours away. I still managed to save a handful of images in my inspiration folder and here's what my browsing had provided me:

{Oleg Cassini CWG352 via David's Bridal}

{Galina Signature SWG354 via David's Bridal}

{Galina Signature SV415 via David's Bridal}

{Allure 8808 via The Knot}

{Alfred Sung 6837 via The Knot}

{Alfred Angelo 2034 via The Knot}

{Jenny Lee 1117 via The Knot}

Pick up on a very noticeable trend in my inspiration pictures? I clearly liked structure and detailing on the bottom of my dress. I was drawn to strapless, non-ball gown, non beaded type dresses. I liked something that made a statement but that was also simplistic, but had one some sort of dramatic element. I feel like I had a good idea of what I envisioned myself in, it was just a matter of getting out of Durango and to a bridal salon to actually try them on.

So, bees, who else had a nonchalant approach to trying on dresses?

Reachin' Out To My Girls

It had been quite a few months since I had touched base with my girls about where my wedding planning stood. Sure we would discuss bits and pieces over cocktails, but never all together and never exactly what I was thinking. Plus, since my last email to them, I had changed my colors & also changed the look of what I wanted them to wear. I had made a couple of trips to Hobby Lobby, (which PS, is a 50 minute drive across state lines...yes I have to venture to New Mexico, a whole different state to get craft supplies) I had visited Hobby Lobby and picked up some basic crafting supplies: paper cutter, stamps, card stock, bone folder and I was itchin' to do some craftin'. I decided I would create something to give to my girls showcasing my ideas. Being that I got too anxious and asked my bridesmaids to be in the wedding either via a phone call or an email, I thought this could make up for it.
I will preface by saying that I did NOT have a clear vision when I started, and because of that, it took me four weekends to complete, with numerous hours devoted to how I wanted this something to look. There were three ideas I knew I wanted to portray to the girls: 1. My Vision 2. My New Colors and 3. The Bridesmaid Dresses.

I started with My Vision:

I created the collages through Mosaic Maker and printed everything on neutral toned card stock. After I printed and cut them, I mounted them on another colored card stock.

I introduced My New Color Palette:

I saved the color swatches of off 100 Layer Cake's Inspiration Binder and then just bordered them in Microsoft Word; separating out the Main from the Accent's.

And then the Bridesmaid Dresses:

I made another collage with eight pictures of mismatched bridesmaid's dresses, to get them to see that my lack of control on this issue would turn out perfectly beautiful.

I used stickers to accent their names and stamps to add a little decoration; adding a picture of myself and each girl put icing on the cake:

{Front}

{Back, yikes sorry for the blurry photo}

{All Together}

Thennn...I was stumped. I wasn't sure how to present the card. Do I just mail it as is? Will they wonder why the hay I'm sending this to them? Another weekend passed...then I was making a card for a friends birthday and came with the idea of creating my own card and ended up with this:

{Front}

{Inside}

I hand wrote a note to each girl also, you know to make it personal. I customized the one for MOH Honey saying Maid of Honor rather than bridesmaid and I made one for my parents that said "and we have your support as parents and future in-laws".

I created this little explanation flag to tie it all together:

Then I literally tied it all together with some yarn:

I signed, sealed and delivered dropped them in the mail. I think the girls appreciated it, even though it wasn't necessary I felt satisfied giving them something personal.

Sure, it wasn't the most efficient DIY project but it helped me get some crafting jitters out before I began working on the real wedding projects.

How did you touch base with your bridesmaids? Anyone else use a crafting project as a 'practice run'?

Who Wants To Be My Venue? Part One.

Somewhere in my bridal haze, I had imagined finding a venue to not be too difficult. Go ahead, you can laugh at me, I would laugh at me too. I did really assume that it would be like asking "Will You Be My Venue?", I mean you are paying to have a large event there, what could be so hard?

I think I assumed it would be fairly painless because we live in a small town. There isn't a large selection of venues. In fact the embarrassing truth is that according to Colorado Wedding Magazine, there are....drum roll please, NINE venues available in the Durango area. Granted these are the structures/locations that advertise themselves as a wedding venue. With a bit of creativity the options expand a tiny bit...unless you are like the Honeys and getting married with snow on the ground.

Sure a few of those nine venues are still available in the winter months, but we have to be a little more extreme because we want to have our wedding ceremony outside. You read that correctly, outside in January, in Colorado. I have always dreamed & envisioned myself getting married outside. There was no other way, even in winter. And luckily Mr. H was fully on board. Majority of the weddings in our area do take place outside, I've only been to one over the years that took place indoors and that's because Colorado scenery is just breathtaking:

Image via Custom Weddings of Colorado/Photo by Greg Harring

This was request number one: is there a way for us to say I Do outside. We had a second request for our potential venues because we want photo op's like this:

Image via Luster Studios/Photo by Luster Studios

That's right, Hive, our 100 pound handsome puppy dog will be rockin' a tie for our big day. Here's a refresher of our handsome dog:

Zeus likes to wear things; here is wearing beads and his back pack.

Before I even started contacting venues directly I spent time researching who was even open all year round, since we do get hefty amounts of snow here, many places are only open May through October. This narrowed down my list substantially, but it took even more work to try and uncover some hidden gems that may or may not be willing to get business in the oh-so-dead season. Armed with a contact list and my wedding requests requirements, I started at the top...and by the top I mean the venues that were most intriguing to us.

The list was narrowed down very quickly. Here is a short list of the No-Goers.

- Cascade Lodge was beautiful, but no winter access to their outdoor ceremony site.
- Purgatory/DMR was not available since, ahem, people are using the mountain for skiing
- Blue Lake Ranch was open in the winter, but only for a wedding with 40-50 guests
- Silverpick Lodge was willing to work with us on the outside request but NO dogs allowed
- Abbey Theatre didn't return any of our FOUR phone calls so we were not interested
- Avalon Acres did not allow pets whatsoever
- The Glacier Club also never returned emails or phone calls

On a side note, what gives with venues just straight up ignoring requests for information?!

After contacting the more obvious choices and having NO luck, we did start think more creatively. Private mansions via VRBO. Ranches in the countryside. I got frustrated after one email from a coordinator questioned my ability to comprehend winters in Durango. Yes, LADY, I do know it SNOWS here. I LIVE HERE. Sense my frustration?

After all but giving up, finally finally I had three venues who would meet with us and were willing to accommodate our two requests.

Who else has (or had) special requests that made it a little more difficult to find the venue? Was anyone else's venue list as teeny tiny as mine? Let's here it hive!