A Color Conundrum

I love color.  As much as I think the whole black look is chic and sophisticated, a brightly colored bag or shoes really adds a lot to a Little Black Dress. 

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It's a gorgeous look!  I knew right from the start that I had to have color in my wedding.  I loved the brightly colored bouquets I saw splashed all over the internet on wedding websites like these.



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I think they just add so much fun and flavor to the wedding.  But it turned out to be a really tough choice on which colors to choose!  I kind of set myself on blue dresses for the bridesmaids because I wanted them to a) have a dress they'd have a chance of wearing again, and b) wear a color they'd have a chance of actually looking good in.  Also, the mister told me that the guys would strongly prefer to not wear anything "girly" on our big day.  So no purples, pinks... or anything in that family.  Red is a little too bold for me to have in the dresses and cumberbunds.  There aren't a whole lot of flowers in green and it offers me no color.  Blue works with most other colors.  So this is where I settled.  I think dark blues, grays, blacks, etc. look good on most people so I set on a navy blue or slate blue for the dresses. 

So my first idea was to do a color palette of blue dresses with red and orange. 

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But the pink in this photo isn't exactly what I was going for.  Let me just say that my colors changed at least four times before they settled on the current color scheme.  I really like the look of blue and orange so that was my next idea. 

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After bouncing back and forth from color scheme to color scheme with any variation you can think of in the list of blue, purple, orange, yellow, and green, one conversation with my level-headed mother set me back on the right track.  It went a little something like this.

Me:  So I'm thinking of slate blue dresses now with orange and red flowers.

MamaBean:  You need something that will pop against those colors.

Me:  The whole color scheme pops.  Why do I need one to pop?  I can't have too many colors.  Three is more than enough.

MamaBean: Let me ask you a question.  Why are you set on blue dresses?

Me: Well... K doesn't want the guys in anything girly.  I'd love to do brown or purple dresses, but the bridesmaids don't like brown and the guys won't wear purple cumberbunds.  Besides, brown and black don't go well together.  Navy blue is an option, but it's too dark with black... (I continued to ramble until I was stopped.)

MamaBean:  Coffeebean.  Why don't you just have the girls in purple dresses like you want, and have the guys in champagne cumberbunds?  It still goes with your theme, makes the guys happy and the girls happy.  You can do a purple flower in the boutonniere. 

Me:  Oh. (long pause).....  That could work. 

And so, my mom saves the day... yet again.  Are you ready to see our color scheme?  It's for real.  Actually been set for... about 1 1/2 months now.  It's a record! 

Here we go...

Eggplant

Burnt Orange



Apple Green

I love our color scheme.  It's so unique and unexpected.  Adds so much color to our day.  A beautiful thing.  The ladies will be in eggplant and the flowers will be a combination of the colors.  With a pop of apple green.  Here are some inspiration boards I found and loved, just to give you an idea.  

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I love the look of calla lillies in the bouquet, but my florist tells me they are quite pricey, so we'll have to see if they'll make an appearance on our wedding day.  It surprised me that I had such a hard time choosing our color scheme!  I still see pictures of some fall themed weddings that make me swoon and think that I might want to rethink our colors.  Don't worry, I won't!  But it's tempting! 

My Beach Wedding Jealousy

I have a confession to make.  As much as I absolutely love our venue, I find myself longing for the starfish and shell centerpieces and other decorations that come with the beach theme.  I know I could just do a beach theme even if we're not at the beach, but that idea just doesn't jive for me.  I'm a serious perfectionist and take issue when things are out of place or aren't exactly what they should be.  Hence the fall-ish theme of our October wedding. 

But in all seriousness, don't you just love the beachy wedding ideas that are out there?  Like this cake:

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I love the starfish and the shells.  And the bed of sand underneath?  So cool!  Here comes that jealousy again...

And oh, the centerpiece options!

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Don't you just love the sand dollar table numbers?  Lovely and unique!

Whew!  Well, I feel better getting that off my chest!  I've always thought a beach wedding would be amazing, but the logistics are a little tough for me to swallow.  First of all, I hate sand all over me.  I know they can give you an aisle runner and all that, but sand all in my toes?  No thanks!  That's fine when I'm in a bathing suit covered in tan oil, but not as fine in a wedding dress!  Second of all, it turns out a beach wedding can be pretty pricey!  They're really popular (hence all the ideas out there!) so I guess they can charge an arm and a leg for it.  Thirdly, we live nowhere near a beach.  Closest one is about 5 hours away.  People are already traveling to our wedding.  I can't imagine them having to travel even further just for us to be on a beach. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm EXTREMELY happy with our location!  I love Che'ne Rouge and I know we're going to have a blast.  It's just sometimes I find myself doing the whole grass is greener routine.  Anyone else do this?? 

Where to Moon?

First off, let me apologize for my slacking.  I swear yesterday was Monday, and now all of a sudden it's the weekend.  Where does the time go?  Honestly?

So, moving on to probably the most important thing that I have yet to talk about.  The Honeymoon!  Oh yes, the beautiful blissful week we will spend somewhere sunbathing, eating, drinking, and relaxing before officially starting life together.  So, it goes without saying.  It's a big decision.  We sat down to talk it through and decided that we wanted somewhere that had a good mix of active/fun things and sitting around relaxing things to do.  All-inclusive would be nice so we don't have to worry about budgeting out our money for food or where our next meal is going to come from.  But we were open to alternatives so long as we weren't going to be stuck at one resort for a whole week.
 
It turns out that there are a lot of places we would LOVE to visit!  One of the first places we settled down into was St. Lucia.  I found this gorgeous place in a catalog called Jade Mountain in St. Lucia. 

  

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Doesn't that look absolutely amazing??  I love it.  Unfortunately, starting at $950 per day (without meals, $1130 for breakfast and dinner included!), we'd only be able to stay for 2 nights with our budget. 

After some searching, my mom (Mamabean, haha) turned me on to this great website:  luxury link where they have extremely discounted rates for these gorgeous resorts all over the place.  We're talking 30-80% off of the normal rates!  Pretty amazing deals.  Each package is only good for a short period of time so you have to be sure to find one that your desired time fits into, but all in all it's a great way to save some green.
So we started looking and found some other pretty great places in St. Lucia.  Not quite Jade Mountain, but gorgeous nonetheless. 

The first one is BodyHoliday.  Here it's all inclusive, so all meals and drinks included, plus we get a free massage for each full day we're at the resort, unlimited access to the motorized and non-motorized sports equipment.  5 nights in this gorgeous paradise would only set us back around $2200-2800 without our flight (3300 for 7 nights).  Not too bad!  Here's some photos for your viewing pleasure.

The reviews on trip advisor were pretty good on this place too.  It's a contender, for sure.  Here's the other St. Lucia Contender.  This one is called Rendezvous.  Love the name! 

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So this place we can go to for about the same price as BodyHoliday.  It's also all-inclusive and we could do 5-7 nights for 2200-3300, before flights.  I think they'd both be amazing, but we're still considering other options.  What do you all think of St. Lucia?  Yay or Nay?



My first etsy purchase!

All over these messageboards over at the bee I saw people talking all about Etsy and how great it was.  So I did a quick search and realized, it is pretty great!  There are a TON of people who make things by hand and sell them for reasonable prices.  It's nice because you're supporting an artisan instead of some giant corporation.  All in all, a win-win. 

I've checked out all kinds of stuff on this site and found a lot of stuff I love, but I've been lurking for awhile without actually buying.  I FINALLY decided to bite the bullet and buy some cool accessories for the wedding.  I think I'm completely and totally hooked!  I ordered two things, they both came really quickly, were packaged really nicely, and were exactly what I expected.  No surprises.  So, I know you're asking, what did I buy?

First thing I purchased was a hair accessory.  I've seen a ton of pictures of girls in their wedding dresses with these beautiful flowers in their hair and I decided I just had to have one.  It took awhile to decide if I wanted just an accent piece like this one: 

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Or a flower like this one: 

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Or maybe this one:

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Really, the options are limitless!  In addition to choosing a flower or hair comb that is already made, you can request custom items and the sellers will make something of your design.  I was in a complete sea of indecisiveness.  After seeing pictures like these:

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 I decided I loved the flower idea and quickly set my sights on finding the perfect flower for my hair.  I wanted something that wasn't too big that it would take over my head, like so.

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And not too small that it looked like... well, like lice.  Or dandruff.  Or like my hair is growing a garden.  Neither of which I wanted to look like on my wedding day. 



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 *Shudder*

 
  Finally, after weeks of going back and forth and saving flower after flower in my favorites, I decided on one!  I ordered it from misunbridal and it came in just a few days later.  I eagerly opened the box and found a cute little bag with a tag on it that said "Best Wishes and leave + feedback!" which I thought was cute and nice touch.  So here it is!

 In the tissue paper:

In my hair:  (Excuse the messy hair!) 

So, I'm officially an etsy addict.  What do you think of my purchase?? 

The Dudes' Digs

So, as promised, we had another visit to Che'ne Rouge and I took some more pictures to share with you.  I told you all about the big red barn where you enter the property.  So, here's some more pictures of this lovely piece of architechture.  This time, it's at night so the lights are all, and I must say, it's gorgeous! 

Cool huh?  We certainly think so. 

So last time, I showed you the Bride's room and how much they take care of me and my ladies on our big day.  The guys are out in the barn in their very own bachelor pad, complete with animal print.  Take a look. 



Almost there.... 

There it is!  I'm so in love with the animal print EVERYWHERE!  I'm not sure where the whole animal print means bachelor pad thing came from but it's in pretty much every movie.  You know the ones where the guy takes a girl back to his place and hits the magic button on his remote and the lights dim, the disco ball starts spinning and he sits down seductively on the animal print (insert any furniture type here).  Seriously.  

So at Che'ne Rouge, the guys wll be getting ready amongst suede and cheetah print in true bachelor style.  Love it. 

The Venue Saga: The Big Reveal Part 2

Let's recap.  So far you've seen a sneak peak of our gorgeous venue, and we've even walked through a lot of the really cool features of Che'ne Rouge.  But, there's more!  You have yet to see the reception space or the outdoor bar area which houses the 200 year old red oak that is our venue's namesake.  So, you ready for some more pics? 

Okay, okay.  Enough stalling, let's get down to business. 

Here's a little peak into the reception area.  This is taken standing near the doorway that leads to the indoor bar I showed you last time.  The doors on the left lead to the outdoor bar, so let's go there first. 

Don't you just love it?  And, of course, on our wedding day it won't be nearly as dreary and the trees will have leaves so it will look much more wedding-worthy.  But, that tree!  Isn't it amazing?!?  It was cold out, so I only took one picture of the outdoor bar, but it's one of my favorite areas at our venue. 

So, headed in out of the cold, here's the reception area!

Cool huh?  The gold chairs come with the venue, which is awesome because they're really expensive to rent.  I don't think I'd rent them anyway because I don't, honestly, think anyone notices them but the bride.  But, I have to admit that I think they do add a lot to the look of the room.  So in love with the hardwood floors and the mirrored walls.  It's just amazing, simply put. 

Oh yes, and I can't forget to point out the uplighting to you.  In the picture above, you can kind of see the fabric draped on the ceiling with the lights.  It really adds so much character to the room and gives a serious wow factor when you walk through the door.  Honestly, the pictures just don't even begin to do it justice. 

Here's some more for ya.

The sweetheart table!  Now, this isn't a requirement.  They can also do a bridal party table, but we both agree that we'd rather let our loved ones sit with their loved ones.  I wouldn't want to force a couple to sit separate at our wedding.  After all, weddings are so much more fun when you can spend them with the people you love and not with random strangers. 

I've been that random girlfriend at a table with people I didn't know because my boyfriend at the time was in the wedding party.  All in all it made for a very awkward and uncomfortable evening.  I definitely don't want to put anyone through that.  So, we'll be doing a sweetheart's table for sure. 

So, now you've seen the whole venue!  Aren't you loving it?  We're so excited about it because it just fits us, so well. 

Oh, and I mentioned previously that our photographer has shot at Che'ne Rouge before.  Take a look at his blog and the gorgeous photos he took of a wedding there.  I think my favorite photos are taken in the barn.  Just amazing!  I'll post a few here, just to whet your appetite while you wait for his page to load. 

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Don't worry, the story is LONG from over.  I've got lots more to share with you so stay tuned!