fun in the sun

josh lennon ;)

dresses!

so i was browsing last night and i came across shopruche.com! it's a super cute site with reasonably priced clothes and accessories. AH! there are so many cute things and they totally show like 100% of my style. since i want my bridesmaids to wear springy non-formal dresses, i thought this would be a really good place to find some cute dresses and i was right! i want to make sure all my ladies are comfortable in what they are wearing, i don't want anything to be too short for them or anything like that so i'm trying to be super open minded about this, which really isn't hard at all since i'm not too picky. i figured some of these dresses would look super cute with 3/4 length cardigans!

smokey mtns

this past week pretty much my entire family on my moms side went to TN to have my gramma's memorial service. she passed away a few months ago but wanted to be put to rest on her birthday, which was may 19th. she wished for a sunny, beautiful day, and that's actually exactly what she got.  after her service my parents, 3 of my sisters, me, josh, my 2 nieces, and my brother in law jason went to gatlinburg. it was a really great place to visit, and it was just so nice to be with my family. we had a great time. we shopped, went to the ripleys believe it or not museums, at great food, went to an amazing aquarium, went up a ski lift to overlook gatlinburg, and hiked up clingman's dome to overlook the smokey mountains. 

rainy sunday

this weekend has been a blast! friday josh and i did some major shopping, i got my half priced frappuchino at Starbucks, and we had loads of fun at the mall and thrift stores, yesterday josh and i dressed up to go nowhere. well we did eat at subway and then went to target. i wore my new springy dress and he wore a his cute beachy outfit (pictured below.) then in the evening we went to see the movie Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal. it was an absolutely fantastic movie!! it's been out in theaters for a bit now, but i suggest that if you have a dollar theater you wait and see it there. this was actually the first movie we've seen at the huge AMC theater and paid full price for. (well other than when Avatar came out. i really wanted to see that one!) we're not picky about seeing movies right when they come out. and why pay $11 when you can pay nearly nothing at the dollar theater, ya know? anyways, it was just fantastic!

after that we came home and i made a wedding guest book, so we can keep track of who we want there. so, far there are roughly 100 people. it's going to be nice and small. we only want the people who are closest to us and have been there for us through out our lives. i think that's the best way to go, and i'm happy about that decision.

today, josh and i went to the Columbus Craftacular! it was held in a community center where local artisans display their arts and crafts for sale. Columbus' Etsy team was there too! SO cool!

http://www.columbuscraftacular.com/

(photo rights)

after the Columbus Craftacular, we decided to stop by the library that was right next door, hoping for a book sale. unfortunately we had just missed it. we couldn't believe it, but we were told they had one on fri and sat. what a bummer! but they printed us off a paper with all the columbus area book sales to come for the whole summer! how great! we're definitely on the look out for vintage books for the wedding centerpieces.

more photos

here are some more photos i took in my other new dress. i figured for our engagement photos, we could have some photos where it's just me or just josh, then the bulk of our photos will be us together! :)

ugh, blogger was down all day, so i couldn't write a post about how yesterday (May 12) josh and i are one year away from getting married! wahhoooo! so exciting! so, after work this morning, josh and i were going to go to our hiking spot and take some engagement photos. well we rushed home, took showers, and got all ready. by the time we were finished and ready to go we were completely beat. i was so tired i couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. so we opted to try for another day. it probably wasn't the best idea on my part to do all of this right after a hard nights work. because last night, was brutal. i was running around the warehouse like a crazy person. plus since it's getting warmer it was probably like 95 degrees in there. ugh, so sweaty!

but alas, josh and i decided to do a little shopping at the mall and thrift stores today. we both got a few things from both. i'm so proud of josh's outfit. we pulled it together like champs! i must have some sort of style sense because i'm really excited about his outfit for our engagement photos. both the button-up and pants were thrifted. and his under shirt is from Macy's, like a $9 shirt, woo! i liked these pants so much, but they were going to be too short on him, so i asked if he'd care if we rolled them and he didn't mind at all. he always says "whatever you would like fawn" he's so cute. he loves when i pick him out stuff. did we do good or what?
i also got this super cute dress @ H&M for $12! i bought a plain one too. i couldn't pass up such an amazing deal. i got a slip to go underneath at the thrift store, which adds a super cute design to the bottom of the dress <3

engagement photos

so, josh and i plan to DIY our engagement photos. well, this was more-so my idea since i'm big into photography and pretty exceptional (if i do say so myself) at self timer! we planned to go out to our favorite hiking place this friday morning after work and take some photos. since we get out of work at 5AM, i figured sunrise photos would be a really cute idea. i'm really excited, so you can understand why i am living for the weekend. i always do that though!! hahaa. so by friday afternoon or saturday i should have the first batch of our photos edited and up on my blog!

here are some inspiration photos! like, seriously, how cute are some of these couple shots!

tea time

since the reception venue is ours, now i have had lots of time to think about the placement of decor. i think we're going to to a buffet style meal plan. now, onto the exciting part! since we're going with a "vintage tea time" theme, i got to thinking about plates/cups/ect. i found some simply amazing chinaware! i was basically neck deep into the internet searching for vintage plates. i'm thinking that i'm going to have to do some major thrifting and antiquing to find some really special, unique pieces. next week we are traveling to TN, i am sure while we are there we will from some really neat antique shops!

it's ours!

Well, i have amazing news! my mom texted me today and let me know that on 12 may 2012, the reception venue josh and i wanted badly is OURS! we are ecstatic! the place we chose is just beautiful! i thank my parents a lot for the suggestion, actually. they went to a graduation party there last year and said it was such a pretty place, and suggested it for the wedding. i had my mind set somewhere else, but when josh and i checked it out we weren't completely fond of it like we are to the one in perry. i saw that they have a facebook page, so i snagged a few photos from there. it's nice on the outside and all, but so amazing on the inside. you walk into a big welcoming area where we can set up tables with flowers/guestbook/cards, ect and then there are two sets of french doors leading into the big open area, with beautiful windows that let in some amazing natural light. then, there is an outside patio with a large grassy backyard where you can walk to the lake!
Not only that, but, there is a big playground area for the kids who attend. i know weddings aren't always fun for the little ones so they'll have somewhere to go exploring. :)
There weren't too many photos, so here is a general idea.

front of the building

out back to the lake!

inspriation

i love when i get inspired, and when i do, i go full force, like with sewing, my etsy shop, and paper crafts. usually i do a craft so much i get tired of it. but i always find something new to do, which makes me feel like i really am a crafty person. i may get tired to doing the same thing over and over and over, but i always find a way back to it and regain my love for unique things. well, in my last post i talked about buying a skirt from my favorite etsy seller. i have bought from her before and she always throws in little free gifts. the first time it was a button ring which is totally cool, and i still wear it all the time. well, this time she made a little hand-made booklet. it is so super cute. so, what do i do?! i GOT incredibly inspired to make my own. so, i go out to the craft store and got a few rubber stamps and then went to the grocery store and got some brown paper bags and white printer paper to make my own little booklets! i made one and hand sewed the pages to the "cover" and did some stamping. i thought they could be list makers or grocery list booklets or random thought books, or what i'm going to use it for.. A Polaroid booklet, where i'm going to use it as a picture book. :) i thought these would be really cute to use and give each family at the wedding or to send with their invitation. i'm not even kidding it took me a total of 10 minutes, and i have tons of paper and brown paper. i didn't realize i had bought the 30 gallon paper bags.. HAHA. they were all folded and wrapped together so i couldn't tell. i like that nothing about them is perfect, the ink left a border, the words are a little off-centered, and the paper isn't cut evenly. i'm really excited!

                                                    

gramma

this isn't a wedding related post, mostly a life related post. gramma passed away about a month and a half ago, and the funeral is coming up in TN on her birthday, May 19th. mom was telling me how everyone is going to plan on wearing purple because it was grammas favorite color. i went through my closet and saw very little to no purple, so i was kind of discouraged. well, the other day i was shopping on my favorite etsy sellers shop, maggiesfarmm (who offered me 15% off) and i fell in love with her rosey posey skirt she had just listed THAT day. not even realizing it was purple in it's prime, i bought it. (how could i pass up 15% off?) i was just sitting here, (while wearing the skirt that fits me like a glove!)
and realized, i have something to wear to grammas day, i also plan to wear this brooch of grammas as well <3

centerpieces

it's been a few days, but i've been horribly sick with a sinus infection, and now my ribs and back are absolutely killing me. i have no idea what's going on, but i wanted to update while i am at least feeling a little better than i have been.
last weekend when josh and i visited our parents up north we found our reception venue! right now we're in the middle of a battle of sorts with someone who has "tentatively" reserved our day, meaning they reserved it with no money down and basically weren't completely sure if they wanted/needed that day. so the manager is giving them until monday, then she will assume they don't want it and will be giving it to me! if all else fails and they do call back wanting the 12th, we have picked a new wedding date that we know is available and open.
we also went to a few antique shops in the cleveland area, we went to the maple festival, and to a library book sale where we got about 10+ books for under $4, it was pretty amazing. mom bought us 6 vintage/old books as part of our centerpieces, that i'm really excited about. we decided that we'd only buy a few because my deceased uncle was an avid collector of books that we are going to be able to use! lots of shakespeare, which is great because of the romance books! when we bought the books at the library book sale, i made sure i grabbed some with neat titles that describe us. there are so many little things you can do to make the decorating process completely 'your own'.

the photo i added is just a draft i guess you could say. we're actually kind of interested in reading some of the books, and they will be great decoration for our future home :)

sickies

there's nothing worse than a sore throat, and that's exactly what i have today. josh and i were up for a total of 25 hours yesterday because we made a trip up north for the weekend to see our families and do some wedding stuff. we drove straight here after work and went to the maple festival in chardon with my mom and niece coral, leaving us very little time for sleep. but that's okay, that's kind of just the way we planned it.
 josh is looking miserably sick right now and i am feeling it come on. my throat feels like someone torched it with fire for about an hour straight. *sigh* and we're both also up super early (for most people) it's about 5am right now. i went to bed at 5pm yesterday because i couldn't take being up for 25 hours any longer.
today our plan is to look at some venues for the wedding! i'm super excited. we're also going out to an antique store in cleveland/little italy called heartstrings. i hear it's really cute!

glittery goodness

i took some more photos of my ring yesterday <3 i'm in love with it

our thrifty purchases

this is a case we bought yesterday for $3.99! i could have used that to get a whole gallon of gas! oh wait gas is $4.15, guess i got a deal! something i can use forever as opposed to something that is just going to disintegrate into thin air. anyways, i originally got the idea from many, many searches for vintage themed weddings. at first i thought that we could use a vintage suitcase for people to throw cards in on the guestbook/entry table, but i saw a photo where someone used a suitcase for table place-cards, and the grand idea was set in stone. i love that i found a unique circular case with the exact green for the wedding!

here are some of the original photo ideas.

i love, love, love the doilies they draped over the sides! so cute! though i am not using the suitcase for cards, i still plan to decorate it. the top of the suitcase will have photos/polaroids of me and josh much like this:

this is also a super interesting idea, turning the suitcase on it's side and hanging place-cards. hmm! i can still do that with my circular case and maybe it won't take up too much room:

onto my next purchase! i'm pretty sure months ago i saw this at the thrift store and was going to buy it but ended up not because josh and i weren't quite engaged yet, and i didn't want to jump the gun and get overly excited with decor. so i put it back. well, it was fate that we use this little box for the wedding because it was STILL there! and it will be perfect to hold our wedding rings, for either isabella or coral to hold while walking down the isle:

thrifty thrifty

josh and i are going thrifting today to look for some things. i think i've decided the wedding colors are going to be light pink, lavender, and light green! that way when the guys are in their grey suits, they can wear a green tie and it will look really good. josh and i are going home this weekend to check out some venues for the wedding/reception! mom and i are also going antiquing for ideas! i'm so excited!