Details Part II

As I mentioned in a previous post (and if you hadn't noticed on both the website and my blog), our wedding colors will be baby pink and chocolate brown. I know it's been a touch overdone, but I LOVE the color combination and figure that in 10 years, no one will remember/care about wedding palette color trends of the 2000's but me. Anyway, I digress...

I tend to prefer items of a more timeless, classic and elegant design, while Andrew tends to prefer items that tend toward contemporary, minimalist and casual. So I wanted to make sure that our wedding would not have a "stuffy" feel, yet was in keeping with our Saturday evening wedding (which usually suggests an air of formality). Enter the Gerber daisy. It is cute and causal, yet chic and elegant when paired with other blooms. For example, the bridesmaids bouquets will consist of Gerber daisies...


Kermit mums....

And cream roses....

The groomsmens' boutonnieres will be a single rose and a Kermit mum.

We will also use Gerbers in other ways to tie in the theme. For example, they will greet guests in the fountains as they arrive at the Manor, like so:

Photo credits and information www.lionscrestmanor.com .

At the ceremony, pink Gerber daisies will hang in galvanized pails off of the sides of the chairs, and will decorate the arch that will mark our altar.

They will also be our centerpieces, and will look exactly like this, with the addition of a large band of chocolate brown satin ribbon and an overlay of a thinner pink satin ribbon glued around the top of the vase (no bow)....

Photo credits and information www.boulderblooms.com .

Finally, we will even use Gerbers to decorate the sides and the top of our wedding cake....

Photo credits and information www.theknot.com .

In the end, it seemed like the daisy would be a great compromise between our two styles, and help us to pull off an event that is both casual and elegant. I can't wait to see it all come together!

Let Them Eat Cake!

Posting about my wedding got me excited to blog about some of the details. Because I have a HUGE sweet tooth, I thought I would start with my favorite wedding tradition.....the cake. We are going to be working with The Colorado Rose Cake Company to create the confection of our dreams. Our cake looks a bit like the cake pictured to the right, but it will have four tiers instead of three, and will have more flowers (2 pink gerbera daisies on each tier (they will alternate sides) and 3 pink gerbs on top), and will have brown icing instead of black. Marci, our baker, has one several awards and is SO reasonably priced. Her bakery is actually the entire bottom floor of her home, and her tasting was incredible. We received plenty of personal attention and were able to sample all of the kinds of cake we chose for our big day. Tier 1 will be chocolate chocolate chip cake with chocolate mousse filling, tier 2 will hold golden vanilla cake with raspberry gel filling, tier 3 will be a carrot cake with cream cheese filling, and tier 4 (our anniversary cake) will be chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. For an extra $25, we are also renting a gorgeous silver stand to display our confectionery delight.

Photo credit and information: http://www.coloradorosecakeco.com

Love (and Valentine's Day)

How do I love my venue? Let me count the ways....

As any bride-to-be knows, planning a wedding can place a major strain on one's budget. The usual upscale dinner and huge bouquet are often expenses to be spared for an engaged couple. That is why I LOVE our venue, Lionscrest Manor. Each year, they host a "Sweetheart Tasting" for couples who will be wed at their venue. The tasting is from 6-9 and includes a cocktail hour, a sit-down meal, dessert and dancing. The best part is that it is completely FREE and the vendors providing services at the tasting are the same ones the venue works with for their all-inclusive package. What a great way to get a vendor preview and to see what the hall looks like all dressed up.

We decided to celebrate by going to the tasting tonight. I can't wait! And, we used the $ we saved on V-Day to get a hotel room in gorgeous Estes Park, so we can go snowshoeing at Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday.

And, in case you wondered, Andrew came through with a gift anyway. A beautiful black dress from Banana Republic and a bouquet of 12 pink (my favorite color) roses awaited me last night when I got home from work. I'm going to wear it tonight!

Confession

So....before I looked for anything else, I looked for myself! I actually bought my dress before I secured a venue, took engagement pictures, etc. And I don't regret it one bit. Not even a little. Here is a teaser picture of the detailing. I am a sucker for beadwork and detailing and this dress makes me feel like a princess! It is by Kenneth Pool for Priscilla of Boston, from the Platinum line. I highly recommend trunk sales; I saved 10% on my dress, which was enough to cover a custom fitting!

Eye Candy

I heart our photographer! Ross Bothwell of an Elegant Image was the first vendor we met with. We chose Ross from a list of photographers that is affiliated with Lionscrest Manor's fabulous all-inclusive package. Choosing Ross was a no-brainer. I loved his style (photojournalism with a great eye for detail), his price was right, and he creates gorgeous coffe table style albums for his clients. However, being the type-A gal that I am, I had to try him out before "officially" signing him as our photographer. Meeting Ross went better than I could have imagined. He is engaging, funny and laid back. He allowed us just to be us (with the occasional suggestion), and the photo shoot remains one of my best memories yet with the future husband. We did our engagement pictures at Red Rocks Ampitheater (after having a great time at a concert there this summer), and Ross saw things I have never seen before in all my time there; he chose some of the most amazing backdrops. Here are some of the beautfiul pictures he took! I am very excited for the wedding; on the wedding day his wife, Kammi, will also be with us for 8 glorious hours! If you would like to contact Ross, here is his website:http:http://www.elegant-image.com/ .

Rocky Mountain Views

Our wedding will be held at Lionscrest's outdoor ceremony site. Here is a picture. I plan to use a decorative arch with pink gerbera daisies and other pink seasonal flowers to match our pink/brown theme. I will also use galvanized buckets with daisies as aisle arrangements. Here is a picture of our ceremony site.

Choosing a Venue

Like any overly organized, slightly perfectionist, wedding-obsessed bride-to-be, I set out to find our wedding venue almost immediately after becoming engaged. Luckily, my fiance is one of the world's top 3 most patient, understanding and tolerant people and he humored this whim of mine.

Though I am not getting married until June 2009, I was determined to get the majority of the wedding details in place by August 2008, as I hope to be accepted into an administrative licensure program next year; if I am, I will be working and going to school full-time. I did not feel like adding the stress of planning a wedding onto an already packed schedule would be a wise choice for me (or my waistline or my pocketbook, for that matter). So, Andrew and I set out in late August 2007.

There are so many beautiful places to get married in Colorado that it was hard to know where to start! Both Andrew and I agreed, however, that we wanted to get married outdoors, and that we would like to hold the ceremony/reception in the same place in order to have a more "green" wedding (by cutting out transportation and such between the sites) . This narrowed our options down a bit. We also wanted to get married in a place that was no further than an hour from the airport; I didn't like the idea of guests flying in and then having a long drive to the area where our wedding would be held.

In the end, we chose Lionscrest Manor in Lyons, Colorado(http://www.lionscrestmanor.com/). We reasoned that it was near Boulder, a great place for guests who had never been to Colorado to stay(and it met my driving distance criteria). We (Or I should say I, since I knew I would do the majority of the planning.) also loved the all-inclusive package, that seemed to make wedding planning a breeze (It certainly didn't hurt that the majority of the vendors were on the Knot's "best of" lists for Colorado, with our venue consistenly being voted the "best of" Colorado).

I have to say that Lionscrest has been the best choice we have made so far! The have been super organized (they sent me a folder with a timeline for planning, list of vendors, ideas, etc.), the vendors we have chosen have been amazing to work with (and are used to working together, making a co-ordinator unnecessary), and are even hosting a *free* sweetheart tasting tomrrow for all couples being married there which includes drinks, food, decorations and music from their all-inclusive vendors. Andrew and I are so excited! The tasting will be a great way to celebrate V-Day without having to spend anything, which is a blessing for newly engaged couples saving for a wedding!

So, for all of you Colorado brides out there...I highly recommend Lionscrest Manor!

Also, a tip for all of you other Type-A brides....if you are planning your wedding in advance (We were 21 months out at the beginning), don't hesistate to book with your vendors early! I saved about $1,000 by putting a deposit down because I am being charged for the 2007 rates (even though I will get married in 2009)!