Long time coming...

We got married!!!!



More to come soon! I just wanted to post this sneak peak picture our amazing photographer Amy left for us while we were on our Honeymoon.

Bridesmaids dress update and general craftiness...

The holiday time really kicked my blogging bum...

Since my last update, I have found and fell in love with new bridesmaid dresses. I happened upon stewart & brown a really awesome organic clothing company and found these beauties which come in black!



I sent the info out the gals and a few days later they went on sale for HALF OFF! The girls jumped on board and the dress should be arriving any day now. These dresses fit right into the "eco-chic" aspect of our wedding. They're made of 100% organic cotton, are made in the usa and just happen to be pretty darn adorable.

In other news, I have been a crafting machine. I have no less than 5 different DIY projects going on right now including invitations, dessert buffet decorations, after party announcements, hair accessories for the girls, centerpieces and so on.

My latest project are the boutonnieres. I poured through the internet and Etsy for inspiration and in the end came up with these...



I've got many more of these to make but I think the first one came out pretty good. If any one wants DIY steps, just let me know. I'll have much more to post later!

Grocery Store Flowers

Thanks to Ten Thousand Only and 12k Wedding, I found out about this great DIY flower article about bouquets made from supermarket flowers on the Real Simple site.

So I decided to give it a whirl. Here are my results.

A few premade bouquets from Trader Joes:

A little floral wire and tape later:




Lastly I added some white ribbon and pins with pearl heads:


All and all I think it turned out pretty good for a first try. It's a little smaller than I like I'll end up with for a bridal bouquet but I think it would be perfect for the bridesmaids.

Save The Date!

I made these using Vista Prints. We wanted something minimal but still interesting and graphic and we thought a postcard would be cool. We found this silhouette of the Detroit skyline and fell in love with it. We had our first lunch date in one of the buildings in the skyline so we thought it would be a cute touch.


Front:













Back:

Engagement pictures!

On the 19th we drove out to Grand Rapids and met our wedding photographer Amy! Here are a few of the pictures!

Bridesmaid's dress and the importance of "wedding colors"...

So I've basically decided on my bridesmaid's dresses. All of the girls have seen them and all the them would totally rock them out.

When looking for bridesmaid's dresses I really wanted them to be something the girls would be able to wear again. I know probably every bride says that but how many taffeta filled dressed do we ladies own and never end up wearing? Because of this I decided to find dresses that were made out of organic materials, rather than Franken-fabrics. Through the wonders of Etsy.com I found GaiaConceptions where I fell in love with this:
Front

Back


I believe these will fulfill my desire to give the girls a dress option that they will totally be able to wear again.
These dresses are:

• Made of Raw Silk (like linen in texture) that was spun in the U.S.A
• Are only $125
• Are special enough for a wedding but could work for a night out without being too much.

The only issue is what color to chose. Since they are made from an organic material and hand dyed, they can't come in every color under the sun. I think I'm leaning towards Midnight which the seller describes as "a very very deep dark grey. It is a super dark navy in bright sunlight." So that sounds like it should work with our "wedding colors."

I've tossed around several color combinations to the Mr over the past few weeks and at first I think he was a little baffled over what these colors would be used for. After some explaining and finding a few pictures online we were on the same page. My basic color inspiration came from an article I found on The Knot (aka every bride's Graceland.) I'm a fan of bold colors. No pastels will do for me. So in the end turquoise & chartreuse it was. This picture served as my inspiration:

From the beginning...Introduction.

Here is the lowdown:

About Us: Crystal & Brian. Engaged 8/17/08. We've been together just over three years.
Budget: Around $10,000
Guest List: It's at 125 right now.
Wedding Date: 09-12-09
Ceremony Location: The Scarab Club garden

Reception Location: Detroit Historical Museum (Wrigley Hall & Cadillac Cafe)


Reception Afterparty: Bronx Bar


We're in talks with a DJ we found on Craigslist that's only charging $75 an hour! We also found a great photographer that charges $850 for the entire day!

So much more to post but this is all our basics!