A Brunette Bride

Sneak Peek: Reception Decor

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:22:00 +0000

WOW! It's been more than three months since I've posted on this blog! Crazy how time flies. I think initially I was really excited about planning the wedding, then I realized how much time we had left, so I halted planning somewhat, and now were past the four month mark. So I'm getting up and running again. Time is running out!

So here's an idea of what the linens will look like on the reception tables. The charger will be silver instead of gold, though. Chair sashes may or may not be tied like this. Hope you like! More to come soon, I promise.

Hampton Inn to open downtown

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:59:00 +0000

I'm happy to report that a brand new Hampton Inn & Suites is opening in September in downtown Gainesville. This is good news because it's very close to the wedding/reception site!

We have a block of rooms there, and the cost per night is $114. This is going to be the best choice if you want to stay close to the action (and in a nice chain hotel) but not quite on top of the action. There are other bed & breakfasts nearby if you want to stay at a B&B but not at Sweetwater.

Let me know if you have questions, and start booking your rooms! :)

What's Your Favorite Blue Drink?

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:20:00 +0000

I'm considering having a "signature drink" at the reception. Since my colors are aqua and red, I think it would be neat to have a blue drink. My wedding planner sent me a few suggestions. Check them out, and let me know what you think!

More Museum Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Here are some more photos from our shoot w/Robbie's friend's wife in Sarasota at the Ringling Museum. Enjoy!

Make-up, Make-up & More Make-up!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:18:00 +0000

Sorry I haven't posted as much lately. It's been a busy few weeks! I had my third make-up trial last weekend. It was probably the best thus far, but after three trials, I think I have come to the conclusion that I want to do my OWN make-up on my wedding day. I will get some of the products that were used last weekend but do it myself. I think this will be a wise decision, even if it has the potential to add additional stress. {One thing I WON'T do is my own hair, though!}

Here are some photos from last weekend.

Sample Bouquet: It's a Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:00:00 +0000

My florist put together a sample bouquet for me a couple of weeks ago. I got to watch her put it together, which was definitely beneficial, as I realized I didn't love what we had originally planned. She quickly pulled some things out and put others in and ... viola!

We ended up with pin-cushion protea {planned}, red roses {planned}, flame/mango calla lillies {planned, although not the color I thought they were going to be} and hypericum berries {not planned}. We edited out the green kangaroo paw and bluperium.

I took the bouquet home and stared at it over the weekend, and I think it's a winner. {Unfortunately, the cats thought so too. I had to keep them away from it as some lillies are dangerous to cats.} I was originally not sold on the color of the calla lillies, but I think they go well with everything else that's in the bouquet.

Love to hear your thoughts!

Make-up Trial #2

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:15:00 +0000

I got my make-up done by another person last week. Overall, it was good, but I think the foundation is slightly too light and not blended enough around the hairline.

Check out the fake eyelashes! Aren't they awesome? Definitely a must for the wedding day.

I think I may have one more person do my make-up and see how that goes. What do you think?

We're in the News Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:15:00 +0000

Our engagement announcement was in my hometown newspaper, the Winter Haven News Chief, on Sun., June 7. I was {pleasantly} surprised it was in color! It turned out nicely. I cropped it here, but below that you can see what else was on the same page. I think it's hilarious that there's a retired couple in a dancing pose next to us!

Also, click here to see it online. Hopefully the photo will show up soon.

Cheers!

Weekend at the Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:15:00 +0000

Over the weekend, Robbie & I went to Longboat Key. One of his friends (and groomsmen), Chris, and his wife, Anna, came down from Tampa to visit while we were there. Anna is the owner of her own photography and graphic design business, AR Annahita, so we did an impromptu photo shoot on the grounds of the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. What a beautiful place!

The grounds are full of banyan trees, bamboo, roses, etc. At the back of the whole place is the former house of John Ringling, the Cà d'Zan Mansion, and it sits right on the water. The architecture is amazing.

Here is a sneak peek of the photos. She is mailing me a CD of all of them this week. Can't wait!

Make-Up for the Big Day

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:30:00 +0000

For my make-up on wedding day, I want to have smoky eyes & nude lips and a bit of bronziness on my face. I totally just made up that word! I am inspired by Eva Mendes's make-up, so I took a picture of her with me when I did a make-up trial recently at Merle Norman.

It didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped, so I am going to do another trial with a different make-up artist so I can compare. The make-up in the photos below is a little too "pink," if that makes sense. What do you think? I am actually going for trial #2 today, so I will post new pics soon!

Engagement Announcement #1

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Our engagement announcement was in our local paper, the Gainesville Sun, this past Sunday. Below is the proof along with the scan from the paper, which obviously isn't very good! It was fun to see it in the paper and have friends and co-workers mention they saw it. I guess people still read the newspaper! It's also supposed to be online but isn't yet.

Two additional announcements will be running this weekend in my parents' local papers. I will post them afterward.

Our Wedding Web Site: A Sneak Peek

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:30:00 +0000

I'm not sure if I've mentioned before that I love The Knot. They have a lot of resources online, and their wedding magazine is my favorite of all wedding magazines. One more reason to love The Knot is that you can create a personalized wedding Web site. This is different from this blog as it allows you to post info about the proposal, wedding location, logistics and registry. I am in the process of creating mine and Robbie's, but here's a sneak peek! I will post the link when it's ready.

An Aqua Shoe Update

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:30:00 +0000

Sorry it's been several days since my last post! I guess I've been busier than normal. The good news is, I found a pair of shoes that I would love to be my wedding shoes. I ordered them, received them and tried them on. The bad news is, I think there's something wrong with them!

They are jeweled aqua sandals by Nine West with a low heel -- perfect!

But when I put them on, it's as though the actual thong part that goes in between your toes is too far toward the inside of the shoe - on both shoes. So when I wear them, my feet do not stay on the shoe.

Here's a picture so many you can see what I mean:

Can you tell?

I thought maybe they just weren't meant to fit my foot, so I wanted to have someone else with a different foot type try them on. The only person around at the moment was Robbie, so he tried them on! They did the same thing for him, and he and I definitely do not have the same type of feet.

I contacted Nine West to see if anyone has ever had this problem before, and they said no. I wrote them back to see if they will send me another pair so I can see if perhaps the pair I got are just defective. Man, why does this have to happen?! I will keep you posted ...

Engagement Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Our photographers, Powers Photography, were kind enough to send me a Web image of mine & Robbie's main engagement photo for me to put on my Facebook profile, so I thought I'd share it with you. It turned out really beautifully. The leaves and coloring look great, and I'm glad Robbie & I wore the colors we did. I was so into what I was going to wear, and it ended up that you can't really see the outfit anyway! There are some other photos that show our clothes more, though.

Have a great weekend!

Save the Dates ... Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

One of the more fun aspects of wedding planning for me has been picking out save the dates and invitations. I've always loved stationery and cards. Soon after the planning began, I fell in love with Wedding Paper Divas. They have so many neat, fresh designs ... I want them all! The save the date is their "Captivating Coral" design, and I think it looks chic and modern. Obviously, the image below isn't of my actual save the date because my name is not Frances Elaine Turner, but it's the same design. They were mailed about a week or two ago, so hopefully they have arrived in mailboxes!

You may wonder, why do you need a save the date? Why not just an invitation? Save the dates are fairly new and are getting more popular. At my last job, we always sent out save the dates before an event, so I kind of just didn't think twice before doing save the dates for my wedding. They are probably more popular for destination weddings since more people are traveling, but I thought it would be good to let people know the date since we picked it so far out.

Invitations will be going out in a few months!

Inspiration in Atlanta

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

I went to Atlanta last week for a conference and stayed at the Omni at the CNN Center downtown. I was surprised to find one of my potential wedding flowers in one of the lobbies - because it's not a common flower. {At least I didn't think so!} The flower is a pin-cushion protea, and as you can see it's quite tropical. What I like about it is that it's somewhere between orange and red. My florist is putting a sample bouquet together for me next week because I am having trouble picturing how all the flowers we've discussed are going to mesh. I will be sure to post photos of it.

I also saw pretty orchids in rectangular vases with ... AQUA marbles in the bottom. I thought they were cute and of course the right color!

Fun Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Fri, 22 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Here are some photos from the first days and minutes after Robbie & I got engaged. It's fun to look back on them. My only regret is that my hair was really short. My mom has always warned me not to cut my hair really short because it's not as flattering, but I continue to do it! Thankfully, it's grown out considerably now. Enjoy!

This was minutes after Robbie proposed. It was approx. 6:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

I obviously didn't get a photo of Zoe wearing the ring around her collar for the actual proposal, so I put it back on her to get some photos. Dad calls her "FedEx" now.

My ring. I painted my fingernails to make it show up better. :)

At Robbie's parents' house the next day, Christmas Day.

Lovely Lori London Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

I am using two silk flowers in the wedding. Well, in my wardrobe really. One is going in my hair, and the other is being added to my dress. The runner-up wedding dress had a flower on it, so I decided I would get the best of both worlds by adding a flower to my dress.

These flowers are by Lori London.

Hair flower. This is the actual one I am wearing.

In my hair. This is the sample from the bridal salon.

This is the actual flower to be added to the dress.

Me in my dress with a sample flower.

"I Do" Shoes!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

If I ever find the magic wedding shoes, I know exactly what I want to do with them. Check out this photo.

Is this the coolest idea or what? I am totally stealing it. I will probably use blue (aqua) letters too!

This photo was taken by La Dolce Vita Studio.

Not a Winning Shoe

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

The good news is my aqua Nine West shoes arrived in the mail. The bad news is, I don't think they are THE wedding shoes. I like them, and I like the color, but I think they look a little too much like "going out" shoes. Since they were fairly inexpensive, I am planning to keep them to wear for something else. I'll probably take them on the honeymoon too.

Do you agree?

So the search continues!

A Turquoise & Red Wedding in Destin

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

I was recently looking at my bridal salon's blog and saw a few photos of a recent wedding that had a turquoise & red scheme. I looked a little closer at the bride and realized I knew her. She is a friend of one of my bridesmaids. I did some searching to find more photos from the wedding because I enjoy looking at photos from other weddings with similar color schemes. I found them on the blog of Pure 7 Studios.

I like the use of the paper lanterns at the end of each aisle below. {This wedding was in Destin.}

A Sneak Peek at the Bridesmaid Dresses

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

Picking out bridesmaid dresses turned out to be harder than I expected. Deciding on the color, aqua, was fairly easy; it was the style that I wasn't sure about. I had several people try on potential bridesmaid dresses: my bridal consultant, a bridesmaid, and even me! The biggest problem seemed to be that I would find a dress I liked, but it would come in the shade of blue I wanted. I had this color in my mind that I wanted, but it was hard to express or describe it. As my mom would say, growing up I would create something in my mind and ask her to find it. I wouldn't be able to explain it, but I would expect her to find it. (Sorry, Mom!) So needless to say, this perfect shade of aqua became rather elusive. The ladies at Solutions Bridal, specifically Tali, were amazing during all of this!

Another constraint was price. I couldn't in good faith ask my bridesmaids to spend $250 or $300 on a dress. So I decided to hit the Internet, as I often do, when I'm looking for something specific. It's just easier than physically going to a bunch of stores. I started searching J.Crew's Web site and ... voila! I some amazing dresses at a better price point and in a very neat shade of aqua. It's actually called "tropical aqua." (J.Crew has an amazing selection of wedding attire, by the way.)

My girls (five, possibly six) got to choose between two dress: a strapless and a halter. The idea was to hopefully have a few in each style, though. Thankfully, that's how it turned out! As of now, three are wearing the halter and two are wearing the strapless.

Here they are!

I am very happy with these dresses and can't wait to see them on everyone! If any of my bridesmaids want to agree to let me put the photos of them trying on their dresses on the blog, I would love to. But I won't do it without your permission. :)

The next decision that needs to be made is the shoe color. What do you think of silver? Or would a nude color be better?

A Winning Shoe?

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

After more searching for a cute aqua shoe, I came across a pair on Nine West's Web site. They are under $50, so I ordered them! If they don't work, I can return them; if they do work, they are much cheaper than all of the other shoes I have been considering. My main concerns, though, are whether the shoe is the right color and whether the heel is too high. If I get them and like the color, my plan is to take them to Solutions Bridal and try them on with my dress. More to come when I receive them!

Dear Mr. President ...

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Sat, 09 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

I've decided to add a rather prominent couple to my guest list. You may know them. Their names are Barack & Michelle Obama. No, really, I'm serious! Apparently you can send an invitation to the president, and he will send back a congratulatory letter. According to Savvy Scoop, OneWed's Bridal Blog, White House etiquette requires them to send their congratulations!

Whether I voted for him or not, he's still the president, so I think it would be neat!

All you have to do is send your invitation to:

The Honorable Barack and Mrs. Obama

The White House

Greetings Office, Room 39

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20500

So when I get my invitations, I'm going to send one to the White House!

Cats are Invited to the Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsey R.) — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:30:00 +0000

When I initially went to visit our wedding venue, I noticed something amazing. Cats (about 5) live on the grounds! I was so excited to see an orange cat, and I thought it was a sign that it was the right place for the wedding. Here's a picture from The k Gallery, a local photography company, of one of the cats!

I really hope they are around for our wedding. Maybe I should put some tuna in the bushes to make them come out. If we can't have our own cats in the wedding, this is the next best thing!

Here are some other neat photos of a recent wedding at our venue, shot by The k Gallery.