the story of the dress

Like so many women out there, I can’t get enough of Say Yes to the Dress. Colin actually begged me to promise to never make him watch an episode ever again (that’s why we have two tvs… right?). So, while I never had visions of myself in a huge ballgown floating down the aisle, I did have an idea of what I wanted and what the process would be like.

Things I knew for sure:

• I wanted a short dress. I didn’t even try on a long dress.
• I wanted a color pop.
• I didn’t want strapless.
• I like lace

A couple weeks after Colin popped the question, my mom and Colin’s mom came up to Philly and the three of us headed off to NYC. Our first stop was our last stop – RK Bridal. RK Bridal doesn’t take appointments so the reviews were really hit or miss, mostly because sometimes the store is so packed it’s hard to think let alone find the wedding dress of your dreams. However, we lucked it. It was a Friday and it was SUPER rainy, so the store was actually pretty empty. I got double-y lucky when the fabulous Jo became my consultant. She was incredibly helpful and her and I just “clicked.” We were completely on the same wavelength when it came to my vision and she actually said “and this is the dress you are going to walk away with” when she pulled the dress I ultimately bought off the rack. The best thing about wanting a short dress was that it cut the dresses I was looking out down by about 95%. Jo and I pulled about 6 dresses and we were off to the fitting room. My dress was the second one I put on.

I was sold. The moms cried. I couldn’t stop smiling. Jo ran and grabbed a birdcage veil and pinned it on my head and I think I yelled “THIS IS IT! SOLD!”

But, me being me, there was still some things we added on. We swapped the silver ribbon out for a green one and we ordered extra lace from the company who made the dress so we could add cap sleeves.

Flash forward a couple months later. My dress was shipped to me and it was time to get alterations done. I found an amazing little Russian lady who took incredible care of me. I knew she could make the dress fit (I probably should have ordered a size smaller than I did), but I was nervous about the sleeves. She ended up sort of draping this strip of lace around my shoulders, looked at me and asked if I trusted her. I said, “go for it.” And this is what she came up with.

Loved. It. It actually ended up being one of my favorite parts of the dress!

Oh, and I obviously have to talk about the shoes. Once I decided I was going to go with the green ribbon I had Jo (my consultant) cut off a tiny strip from the sample so I could have a color swatch. I dragged the moms into a bunch of stores before I ended up at my mecca, the Kate Spade store in Soho where I realized that the green polka dots in these shoes were exactly the same as the green of my belt.

Plus, they are FREAKING ADORABLE and I can’t wait to wear them again! However, I did have a shoe change for the reception, but that’s a different story for another day…

 

venue

This was the hardest thing for us to decide as we were wedding planning. Our family and friends live all over the US (VA, AZ, CA, KS, WI, MA, RI, NH), so there wasn’t an easy answer. We priced out Wisconsin breweries, New Hampshire beaches, a Philly wedding, and even discussed just walking to the courthouse. My mom suggested the Circle S Ranch, which is just outside of my hometown of Lawrence, KS.

We had held my grandpa’s 75th birthday party there when I was in high school and I remembered it being beautiful. So, we looked into it. The more we researched the more we realized how perfect it would be for us. 30 of our guests could stay out there with us (it is also a bed and breakfast), we could do EVERYTHING on site (rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception), they hvae fantastic food, AND they had farm animals everywhere- buffalo, horses, pigs, sheep, long horned cattle, donkeys, and the world’s sweetest golden retriever.

Best of all? It was actually incredibly reasonably priced and well within our budget!

My mom drove out several times while we were making our decision and sent us lots of pictures. We signed on the dotted line to reserve our date without Colin ever having been out there and the fact that I had been there once over 10 years ago!

(leading down to our ceremony site)

We flew to Kansas for a long weekend in March to check some things off of our list, most importantly, visit the ranch and do a tasting! It was love at first sight. The rooms were beautiful, the ceremony site was perfect, the people were warm and friendly (gotta love the Midwest!), and the food knocked our socks off. The fact that the chef was committed to locally sourcing as much of the ingredients for our meals as possible was really just the icing on the cake.

(Colin taking advantage of one of the ranch’s many swings. And enjoying one of the many Sonic cherry limeaids we consumed over our wedding weekend.)

I really can’t recommend the Circle S Ranch enough. It was a truly magical place to get married (I can’t WAIT to show you more pictures!) and the staff were a dream to work with.

 

fairy tale

On July 7th at approximately 7:15pm I became a wife.

I never would have thought that I would be the kind of girl to meet a boy, fall in love, and get married in a year and a half, but as Harry says in one of my favorite movies (When Harry Met Sally), “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Colin is the best guy I know and I can’t wait for a lifetime of love and adventure with him.

I really want to blog about our wedding for completely selfish reasons. It was such a perfect weekend, and I want to remember as many details as possible. I’m going to break things down into several posts to avoid one epic recap.

We may not have had the most traditional wedding, but the day was a fairy tale (love you Tay Swift!) and the memory of it will bring a smile to my face for the rest of my life.

(All of the pictures are by my incredibly wonderful and talented cousin, Andrew Goble)

what’s goin on

I’ll be singing Marvin Gaye all morning thanks to that title…

There is an awful lot happening in my little world right now, so here’s a little catch up.

wedding planning

We are sort of at the hurry up and wait point. We have a lot of stuff set in stone. Venue has been set. Bridesmaids, groomsmen, best man and man of honor (my brother!) have all been asked. Florist is booked. Music is booked. Hair and makeup are booked. Dress and shoes (omg, the shoes!) have been purchased.

(source) I look at them in their box almost daily.

Colin’s suit and shoes (can’t wait to show you guys his look! It’s fantastic. Vans are involved) are purchased. We picked out wedding bands, but we still need to pay them so the artist can get to work on making them. Invites are being designed (perks of having a graphic designer for a brother). It’s now getting down to details. Colin and I are going out to Kansas for a quick weekend trip at the end of next month to talk to the venue and florist about “our vision” and to taste some food (we still have to decide on a menu and talk about our dessert table requests- I’m envisioning a lot of pies). I have a feeling that July will be here before we know it…

workouts

This is the most consistent I have ever been with serious strength training in my life. My personal trainer sessions ended over a month ago, but Colin and I have been going to “really” lift together at least twice a week and it has made a HUGE difference in how I look and feel. I’m also registered for a race next month. The race has a full marathon and a 10 mile and a friend of ours is running the marathon and she somehow convinced me to sign up for the 10 miler (okay, it was actually super easy). It’s been a great reason to get out and do some longer runs again!

kitten

Prim is finally sleeping through the night (kittens are babies after all), which has made me love her even more than I thought was possible.

And there you have it. My life in a nutshell. Wedding, workout, travel for work, food (I’ll do a food post sometime soon because Colin and I have been making some insanely tasty meals), kitten. Rinse and repeat.

Make it a great week everyone!

new love

Don’t worry, Colin isn’t going anywhere, but a week ago we did adopt a new furry bundle of joy.

Meet Prim! (Yes, Primrose Everdeen IS her given name. This was actually Colin’s idea. We are huge nerds and we embrace it.)

Colin and I have been wanting a kitten for awhile. We both grew up with pets and missed having one hanging around. We’d been keeping our eyes peeled for the one who tugged on our heartstrings the hardest (if it were up to me, we’d have 4 cats, 3 dogs, a turtle, and a llama, so my vote doesn’t count) and last Sunday we found ourselves filling out the adoption forms.

She loves people, is a total chatty Cathy, chirps instead of meows (for real, I should try to take a video to record this).

Oh, and she’s flipping cute.

rings and things

Oh hey there strangers! I just haven’t really been feeling the blog mojo recently, so I haven’t been forcing it. I’ve thought about just shutting down the old girl, but I’m not quite ready to do that. I want to keep documenting what is going on in my life even if I’m the only one who reads it.

A lot has gone down over here in the wedding world, so let’s catch you up.

1. We booked a venue! Colin and I thought about different places all over the US. We thought about getting married at a brewery in Wisconsin. We thought about getting married at the boarding school Colin attended with a reception on the beach. We talked about just going to a courthouse. So what did we end up with? A ranch outside of my hometown in Kansas.

(source)

The ranch has bison, horses, and we get to stay out there the whole weekend. AND we set a date! July 7th! Since it is the weekend after the 4th of July we even get to have fireworks. I couldn’t be more excited.

I also found THE dress. My mom and Colin’s mom came up to help me look last weekend. We ventured into New York City, went to one place and I ended up loving the 2nd dress I tried on (I tried on many more after that but we kept going back to that one). I won’t post any pictures in case Colin stumbles on this post, but I’ll give you some hints- it’s short, it has a green ribbon, and it’s everything I could have hoped for! We went to RK Bridal and had the BEST experience ever. If you need a dress and are in driving distance to NYC, I’d highly recommend going in and asking for Jo (just don’t go on a weekend because it was a mad house, we went on a rainy Friday and we were pretty much the only people there). Jo and I just clicked and she understood exactly what I was looking for.

Oh, and I finally got my ring!

Colin and I picked it out and we got engaged without the ring because it was going to take almost a month for them to remake it for me with the sapphire we chose. It is SO worth the wait. It’s gorgeous and now that I have it on my finger I can’t take my eyes off it.

So now we have a date, a venue, my dress (and shoes and headpiece!), and our best fellas (my brother is going to be my man of honor). Not a bad start, right?

Make it a great week everyone!

wedding who knews?

Okay, so plenty of people know these things, but I am not one of those girls who spent countless hours on wedding blogs prior to being engaged. I don’t have a dream location. I had no idea what “cushion cut” meant before we went to try on rings. Planning a wedding is going to truly be an educational experience for me. Yikes. (Note- I swear, this blog isn’t going to be all wedding focused all the time, but it IS sort of the way I document my life, and right now, my life is a little bit wedding focused. I apologize in advance.)

Things we know for sure-

1. Keep it small. Close friends and family only. I think this is going to be a hard pill for some people to swallow, but really, Colin and I aren’t looking to go into debt for this wedding and we really want to keep it as small as possible.
2. If it doesn’t feel like us, we aren’t doing it. There won’t be engagement photos. There definitely won’t be a garter toss. We want to do our best to keep the whole process fun for both of us (and our families!)
3. It will be fun. We want our guests to have a really good time with us. The “with us” is key here. We want to be present the whole weekend and celebrate with everyone!

That is about as far as we have gotten in this whole planning thing. So, if you know of any cheap, amazing, quirky wedding spots, please feel free to shoot them my way…

Also, is it wrong to want to plan an entire wedding around a pair of shoes? Because these seriously make my heart flutter.

Adore.

This weekend I am off to NYC for a work event. I’ve REALLY enjoyed my lack of work travel the past couple of weeks, but it’s time to kick it up again! Make it a great one my friends!