married life

We did it. After all those months of planning and sewing and stressing and baking, we’re married.

The whole weekend has been a whirlwind of events and family and friends. I can’t believe how lovely everything was. Someone asked me if it was everything I imagined it would be, and the truth is that I could not have imagined how amazingly everything came together.

elephants

So I’m not going to share any photos for a little while, although we already have a handful from family. You’ll just have to wait patiently with me for our shots from our photographer.

I did want to finally reveal at least where we got married…in case you hadn’t guessed already. We had our whole wedding at the Natural History Museum. In fact, we got married right in front of those elephants. It was so amazing.

We leave on our honeymoon tonight (and I still have to pack!), but I have some really cool guest posts lined up for you dear readers.

Thanks everyone for tagging along on this journey, we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled non-weddingness soon.

xoxo

Mrs. Bannon

DIY wedding cake

Onto a rather controversial topic…wedding cake.

From the start, I’ve said that I’m going to make it myself. At some point I made a concession that we’d order a small wedding cake from someone and then I’d make a few additional cakes. Let’s be honest though, I really just want to do it myself. Generally speaking, don’t people hate wedding cakes anyway? If we’re gonna serve cake, it better be a good cake, and I make a damn good cake.

My plan is to make a handful of cakes rather than one giant one. Then we’ll have a bunch of different flavors and I don’t have to worry about tiers. Here is  some of the inspiration I’ve found.

I totally fell for these art deco cakes courtesy of Martha Stewart (of course!).  Simple but varied designs with limited color palate. I love that all the cakes are different sizes.

Seriously, who doesn’t like a choice in cake? Check out this pound cake table from Once Wed. Gorgeous!

I was also thinking something like these rustic cakes. The idea of not having to pipe anything seems pretty appealing. I’m also into the fact that they’re kind of tall. Kind of into the idea of tall cakes.

I’m really excited about the whole project. I am looking forward to spending a day baking without having to worry about all the other wedding stuff (although I’m sure I will anyway).

Now we just need to decide what flavors…and how many…

More wedding planning

I have a confession to make. I have wedding brain. I have tried to fight it, to continue with my everyday life, but I’ve given up the fight. My frequencies are now tuned into all wedding all the time. Having written this, I realize it’s not entirely true, but wedding thoughts do take up a very large percentage. Somehow, realizing and accepting this really helped me not get so stressed about everything (that’s not to say I’m not at all stressed). Mostly, reading this pushed me towards reaching some sort of pre-wedding zen.

To aid my scattered thoughts, I made a to do list and posted it on the wall in our apartment. Major help. Now when I think of something I just write it on the list and it doesn’t have to stay in my brain. Then I just check in with the list, which is posted prominently on the wall and I don’t feel like I’m constantly forgetting something.

alix's mondo wedding to do list

The other thing that is relieving stress is that I feel like I’m actually accomplishing goals. I finished & sent out invitations, which was a huge huge deal (they took me FOREVER to make). We have an officiant. I have my dress. We finally booked our caterer. There is still a lot left to be done and figured out, but things seem to be coming together. There is progress. Looking back to my end of year to do list, I knocked off a few major items and made serious dents in others.  There are still things that I have no idea how we’re going to pull off but I’m hopeful (I should remind myself of this when I’m laying in bed, unable to sleep, worrying about how to display escort cards).

Anyway, as we get closer I hope I’ll be able to share a few more details, but obviously a lot of it will have to wait until after the wedding. There’s a sneak peak at our invitations in progress at the top, just to entice you a little. There are so many things I’ve been dying to share for months, like our guest gifts, which has been driving me a little bit bonkers as well.

We’re in the final countdown.

Wedding dress details

First I just have to get one thing out of the way…

Shawn Bannon, if you are reading this, please stop.

Just scoot on over to another website please and thank you. We made a deal.

baby turtles

The turtles are just a distraction.

Now that that’s done with…for those of you still here…I want to share some details of my wedding dress. Woah!

wedding dress neckline

It’s still not complete, but I’m bad at keeping secrets. So here are a few little hints of what it will be. Feel free to let your imagination run a little wild.

wedding dress ruffle decisions

There’s lots of lace. More than you see here even though it’s strewn about the floor.

I have to say, with all the things that need to be done and projects that need to be worked on, looking at these photos make me feel oh so much better. Pretty pretty pretty.

You want to see what the dress looks like?

this is my wedding dress

Yep, there it is.

It’s pinned on me. The lace is on it’s way. Needless to say, I’m rather excited.

This is probably the last peek you’ll see until after the wedding.

66 days and counting…

Shoes!

Dear friends, I know I promised you cookies, but I’m having a major shoe crisis. I need your help.

I can’t decide on shoes for our wedding. I’ve already gone horribly astray. I am really quite a bad shopper, especially when it comes to shoes.

It all started when I bought the grey shoes above. I really like them. I thought I’d add a little lace or something. But, these lovelies were politely vetoed for the heels were too high. It’s true, for a girl who rarely wears heels, it’s not the best idea for me to be prancing about in such things (although I love the shoes, and will save them for another occasion since they were inexpensive).

Then I found these beautiful olsenHaus wedge mary janes and fell in love. They of course are much more than I want to spend. I’m also not sure why I am obsessed with grey shoes. I’m pretty sure they don’t go with my dress. Gosh they’re so pretty though.

Next I took a trip to Humanitaire to see what they had left in stock (they’re closing their doors and selling everything at a major discount so I suggest you check out what they have post haste). Again I was plagued with the problem of the too high heel. I loved these black Neuaura Sparrow platforms. Is it appropriate to wear black shoes under a wedding dress?


Then, in a moment of desperation, I bought these horrendous things. I thought I’d take off the bow and replace it with some extra lace from my dress. They’re so darn ugly though and hideously bright white. Back to the store they go.

What I’d really like is something like these. Something old-timey. I can’t find anything suitable though. I really don’t want the ones with lace windows that keep popping up in my various searches. I keep finding ones that would work, but they’re always black. Something seems odd about wearing black shoes under my off-white dress.

So friends, shoe enthusiasts, I’m asking for your help. I’m taking suggestions and recommendations. I have only three requirements.

  1. They can’t have a super high heel. Approximately 2 – 3 inches is probably about right.
  2. They must be vegan friendly. Fabric is great or there are always synthetics.
  3. They should in some way match these fabrics (since there isn’t a completed dress to show you).

If you find something for me I will do something really nice for you. I promise.