pearls & such

2.04.2009

Capturing the Moment! part I

Once we'd figured out what our budget was going to be for the wedding, Percy and I both decided that photography was most important to us, therefore, it would be our one splurge. Percy didn't really have many guidelines for what he was looking for in a photographer, which gave me free reign to find someone who was a perfect match for our day (and yet another reason to love blogs: resources!).

After researching many photographers, I had our decision narrowed down to two incredibly talented ladies. The first was Briel Johnson of Five Petal Design. I'd contacted her and discussed wedding day options with her, and knew she could easily be a fit for what we (ok, really what I) was looking for - someone to capture our day and tell a story with their photography (I soon found out this was called Photojournalism, btw). I mean, just look at these photos:

*sigh*

After you wipe the drool off of your chin, check out these photos and more of her beautiful photography here. As hard as it was for us (me), we decided not to go with her because she was quite a ways away from our venue, *tear*. However, Briel is AWESOME and so incredibly helpful! If you are in the Portland area, I definitely recommend contacting her!

part II coming up next....

So many pretty colors!

We went around and around trying to decide a good color choice for our wedding. Red and poppy, purple and gray, yellow and white,..... One request from Percy: NO PINK! Ha! Two or three years ago I may have argued (and won I might add :) that battle, but with me having that darn wedding blog addiction, I knew I could find something that would make us both happy!

Since we are getting married on a ranch, (ok, technically it's a piece of property with a bajillion acres and three horses, but what do I call that? A farm? Nope, that won't work - no cows. Their backyard? Um, that would be a HUGE backyard! 'Ranch' will do for blogging's sake!) I knew I wanted something that wouldn't overpower the beauty of nature as our background. Well Ladies, that's when I stumbled across these images:

Ah, so pretty! So red and taupe it is! And as if I needed more inspiration, I saw this today, *swoon*!

How did (or will) you choose your color palette?

2.02.2009

Deciding the venue and date: Oh, the drama!

Deciding on our wedding date and venue was the hardest, most stressful, awful, painstaking...(are you getting an idea about how I feel regarding the subject? Writing this post makes my tummy churn a lil' bit) decision we've made thus far. My sweetheart (we'll call him Percy) and I were raised on opposite sides of the country, so that posed a huge hurdle in itself. Trying to find a weekend that could accommodate all travelers, holy moly!

When we were first engaged, the first date we thought of was October 10th, 2009 - it will be our 5 year anniversary AND it falls on a Saturday, how perfect!... WRONG! This is where it all began. After many heated discussions with Percy, we finally picked a weekend in June and told everyone to be there or send a nice present (I'm kidding on that last part of course ;).

Percy has been on the west coast for almost a decade now and most of his friends reside here. Given that, and the fact that all of my family and friends live here, we decided it would be best to have the wedding in WA. Percy's aunt and uncle (whom I love and adore) have a friend, Gloria, who graciously offered her place as our site - her gift to us.

I present to you, our wedding venue:

photos by me

I can't even begin to thank her enough for being so generous to us! And guess what, Gloria has a pet wolf! To top it all off, since I can't really wear heels here, I'm gonna get me some cowboy boots and wear them for the wedding! This my sweetheart will love since he is a country boy at heart!

1.31.2009

Hey, look what I won!

I started off my day like I do any other: sippin' my cup of coffee while I feed my wedding addiction. It had been a couple of days since I'd visited The Brides Cafe so that was my first stop for the day. I caught up on the posts I'd missed when I saw, "And the winner is...Mireya" Wha?! AM I READING THIS RIGHT? I never win anything! I reread it over and over again, my name becoming unrecognizable and I still couldn't believe it, but I won this lovely handmade, Miss Erma:

Chelsea from Oh! My Deer! did such a beautiful job! I have had it for a few months now, sitting in the pretty packaging she sent it in, in anticipation for the big day. I managed to sneak it into a few pictures during our e-session! Thanks Janie and Chelsea! I can't wait to wear it at our reception!

The proposal

I knew he had the ring, and for over a month, a LONG month, I waited in anticipation for the special moment he was going to pop the question. Would he send me an email? Take me out to dinner? Send me on a scavenger hunt? One day when I came home from work, I was on the phone with a girlfriend explaining to her the daily routine I'd recently developed in anticipation of his proposal: "I hang my keys up, check the counter, check the dinner table, check the coffee table, check the.....WAIT...CHECK THE COFFEE TABLE?!?!??! OMG, OMG, CHECK THE COFFEE TABLE!!!" My sweetie proposed by surprising me with flowers which, I was so impressed because he arranged them himself, and wrote me one of those make-you-cringe-it's-so-sweet notes for me to find (if you know my guy, mushy-gushy stuff is out of character for him, which made it that much more special!). Here's a picture of the beautiful ring he gave me!! We're so, so excited; 2008 was a big year for us!

photo by me

Love you Percy!

1.30.2009

friday lists

Today is Friday, my day off! Which means I dedicate it to getting something done. Some days it's cleaning the house. Hmmm, not today (although, I should probably get around to picking up those empty coffee mugs before I don't have anything to drink out of here shortly). Today, I'm going to do wedding things. I'm a lists girl, so I've put together a list of things for the agenda.

1. Stop at Starbucks - I'm obsessed with their new teas! It's always a toss up between the London Fog and the Vanilla Rooibos. Yummy!
2. Find bridesmaid dresses. There are some concerns with the dress I chose for them. I want everyone to be happy, so alas, I am at least going to *try* to find another dress.
3. One of my BMs (we'll call her Texas ;) has been kind enough to make our bouts. She is so crafty, I couldn't think of anyone better to do it! So, I'm going to swing by the craft store to see what kind of stuff I can find!
4. Look for GMs' outfits! Gah, I don't even know where to start.
5. Start a rough draft of our ceremony. Hmm, speaking of ceremony, I should probably get an officiator on board, eh?
6. Lastly, bake a cake for my sweetie pie. His bday was this week, but he wanted to wait until today to celebrate! His favorite is confetti cake, nom, nom, nom.

On another note, our photographer, Jenny Jimenez, flew out last week for our e-session and she was AWESOME! We are so happy we chose her! She sent us a few teasers to hold us over, and I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures :) Since we are having our wedding on a family friend's property who have horses and such, I wonder if I could ask Jenny if we could do something like this:

all photos from here

Have a great weekend!

1.29.2009

25 random things

1. My parents forgot to give me a middle name. Probably because my first name is hard enough to pronounce.
2. My toe nails are almost always painted red.
3. I haven't been on a bike in over 14 years.
4. When I was younger, I used to make my sister lie on the floor, pile the sofa cushions on top of her and then sit on top of the pile of cushions. She was three years old and I was ten.
5. I don’t like to peel oranges, so I just don’t eat them.
6. I love polaroids.
7. I recently started wine tasting and Syrah is my fave.
8. My favorite birthday cake is chocolate cake with white frosting.
9. I’ve only had one boyfriend. I’m marrying him in June.
10. I have never been sledding because of Casper the friendly ghost. He died sledding. Don't believe me? Watch the movie.
11. I drink my coffee with Coconut Creme every morning.
12. Regarding #11, I usually leave that empty coffee mug in random places like my bathroom or the closet.
13. I have never seen any of the following: Indiana Jones, James Bond, Star Wars.
14. When I was ten, my cousins and I pretended we were Power Rangers.
15. I drive a big girl truck.
16. I like to sing along to Disney movies. My top two are Aladdin and Enchanted. I also like to sing along to infomercials.
17. I have three scars across my right hand where I put my hand against an electric heater when I was one. I used to tell people I had the scars because I was attacked by a tiger since that sounded more exciting. No one believed me.
18. I saw 98 degrees live.
19. When I was 7, I was mad at my mom so I packed a bag with clothes and grabbed my umbrella and ran away. I made it to the end of the block before I realized she wasn’t coming after me, so I returned home.
20. I'm usually always cold at work.
21. I could eat ice cream for every meal.
22. I never learned how to swim.
23. I met Barney when I was 9 and have a picture to prove it.
24. All my girl cousin’s (my mom’s side) names end in the letter ‘a’. Monica, Vanessa, Blanca, Yolanda, Rebecca, Jessica, Dalia, Sonia,….
25. My sister and I shared a room until I was 17.

the down low

I finished up my degree in construction management this past spring; I thought the day would never come! I accepted a great job with an awesome company, but as you can imagine, I work around (what they've deemed themselves as) "crusty old men" all day long. At work, they call me a sassy and feisty young lady; it's not an easy task keeping these guys in line, ya know! Don't get me wrong, I love what I do but these days, wedding blogs are one of my favorite escapes where I can swoon over all things wedding-related.

Well, that and Edward. Yep, I have a crush on a vampire. I'm almost done with the final Twilight book. Then I might start the saga over. Or go back to wedding planning :) Other tidbits about myself: I am engaged to my college sweetheart, purchased my first home nine months ago, I have two beautiful dogs and a cat, I heart Polaroids, love to do yoga and wine-tasting, and can make a pretty tasty batch of white chocolate chip cookies. Also, I thought you should know, I can recite every line to The Sandlot.

And here are some pretty pretty pictures to hold you over for the work day!