Today I Bought the Dress!

Today I bought my wedding dress! And the veil and the underthings that go with it. Plus a garment bag to keep it all in.

I look purrty! And the dress was on sale and everything else was sold at a discount so I ended up saving about $200 on the purchase! Woo! The veil has scalloped edges with really pretty sparkly edging. It is very delicate and looks really nice.

News for my Bridesmaids! If you buy your dress as David's Bridal  (in any state) you can get $20 off of your dress if you give them my full name and tell them I am in Oregon. Woo!

News for the Groomsmen! Please let the guys at Men's Warehouse know that you're in our wedding party and we get a free suit for Lauran.

Here is some information on pairing and colors for The Parade of Female Body Types and the Longhaired Man Brigade. The colors are from David's Bridal. You can look them up.
Bride Jennifer and Groom Lauran will be wearing Apple (red) (well, I am wearing white but the embroidery is apple)
Maid of Honor Deana  and Best Man Edwin will be wearing Lapis (a wine purple)
Bridesmaid Michelle W and Groomsman Jason will be wearing Cognac (a warm orange/brown)
Bridesmaid Michelle B and Groomsman Kevin will be wearing Espresso (a darker more chocolate brown)
Bridesmaid Amanda and Groomsman Kris will be wearing Tangerine (a warm orange)

Ladies will wear Converse All-Star low tops in colors matching their dresses. You can order them in any color from online. Yes, Michelle, I know you're against it. I want you to wear them for the ceremony and the photographs and then you can wear whatever shoes you want. :) Dress length and style I am wanting look a lot like this:

Dresses at the knee. Does not have to be strapless. I would prefer not chiffon and would like solid colors. If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me and we can talk. :) You do not have to buy your dress at David's Bridal. I would like to see photos of you in your dress of your choice before you purchase it. Strapless, strapped, or whatever to make you comfortable.

Guys (groomsmen and dads) will be wearing tuxes with vests to match. Once we set on a pattern of vest and stuff I will post pictures and information for ya!

For our moms and grammas we got $20 giftcards with my dress purchase for you to put towards any outfit if you'd like to purchase something new to wear to the wedding. We will mail them out to you!

We also found a venue. Waiting to hear back from Dads about it. Link to see it The Troutdale House. It looks gorgeous and I think will be right up our alley! Planning is going splendidly!

Deana and I talked about cupcakes today! We've decided on the flavors! One will be lemon with white chocolate frosting, one will be dark chocolate with mocha frosting and one will be red velvet with cream cheese frosting! Made my Mrs. Reynolds herself! And trust me, they will be delicious!

A Very Wedding Friendly Day!

So, I figured out some stuff today! I had my hair crown braided and I think it looks fantastic. The woman who did my hair also does do weddings so we'll have to look into pricing for the braiding. And this was really without much of a brush out or anything and took about 5 minutes.

There was a woman sitting next to the woman who was doing the braiding who made these really lovely hair pieces and you can order them custom as well! I might do this instead of wearing a veil... Thoughts on the matter? It would, obviously, be done in white and red to match my dress and it's not completely set into my hair or anything and it's not completely centered on my head, but it gives an idea. I will see if we got another picture of it from Jason and Deana, they and Lauran all really liked it.

In other world news... I might have found The Ring! I really loved this one, it made my heart stop when I saw it... It's .53 total carat weight diamonds and 3 dark blue sapphires. It is well within our price range and it is a stunning ring in person. We went to Shane Company in Tigard and I was greatly impressed with their service and selection and pricing.

I also heard from MooseL today regarding ideas for the invitations and stuff so things are clickin' along really well! Starting to get people in contact with people... Jason and Deana have both made contact with Edwin and Deana made contact with Taen since she's making the cake topper and Deana is making the cake! We've had their and our friend Penny volunteer to help set up stuff and we've just been really starting to mold things. 

We started looking at ceremony stuff the other night too, since we're writing our own. I know what song I will walk down the aisle to! I heard it randomly on Pandora radio a few months ago and it took me by surprise! It's off of an album called Friends of Aloha which is an album of Hawaiian style lullabyes. It is a cover of Pachelbel's Canon in D, which I was NOT going to have! However, it's such a beautiful and intricate piece of guitar work that it's beautiful and amazing. Also I think I might have found the song for the processional before me... we'll see anyway! It is Concerto Grosso in C Major by Arcangelo Corelli. It was a beautiful piece! 

A New Twist?

So, my grandparents came to visit on wednesday and gave us some great news! As one of our wedding gifts they are going to let us use their timeshare in Maui for our honeymoon! I was excited to stay at Sugar Beach, but this place also seems nice. The hotel is called Ka'anapali Beach Club and it seems awful nice. It has a little kitchenette and according to my grandparents there is a grocery store across the street.

In the end, it will save us a ton of money! Which is awesome. More for spending on Maui!

We have some thing cooking right now- working on what we want for the ceremony, starting the thought of music and what we want said and things like that. I sent off some info to Michelle to start ideas for our Save the Dates and Invites. Things are basically simmering away...

Wedding Favors

When I went to my freind Lindsey's wedding in Humboldt she had done something for favors that I had really really liked- she donated to the ASPCA. They gave her little cards to give to her guests to explain that she had made a donation in their name. I am totally down with this idea.

Origionally we had thought about donating to the ASPCA, but when we sat down and really thought about it we kind of wanted to keep the money local. There is a local Humane Society, but they get a shit ton of money every year and I am not a huge fan of them, there are other small rescues around as well, and I, myself, work for the County animal shelter and I know that we could use the money.

Therefore, in lieue of throw-away gifts for my guests, we're going to figure out a large donation to Multnomah County Animal Control- to help make the lost, unwanted and abused animals from our community's lives better. Either we will donate cash or we will go on a pet stuff shopping spree- food, toys, treats, etc to help the animals in our area who end up in the shelter.

Here's a selection of animals that we have already helped... <3

Moar Ring Shopping!

So, we went on a date night tonight to Benihana with the intention of going to Shane Co. after dinner. They were, unfortunately, closed, so we didn't get to go there. It's supposed to be a pretty sweet jewelery shop. Several of my coworkers recommended it. Oh well, we will have to go out to Beaverton/Tigard again to visit Shane Co.

We ended up going to the Lloyd Center Mall and stopped in at Ben Bridge Jewelers and very briefly at Kay Jewelers who were in the process of closing. We spent some quality time with the gentleman from Ben Bridge. He told us all about diamonds, we got to look at one under the special geological lamp thing and under a microscope. It was pretty damned awesome and VERY shiny! I will be honest when I say that I didn't see anything I particularly liked (it's WAY too flashy and pricey for me), but it was very useful information. He also told us that they will be having a diamond show in June and that the goldsmith will be there and we MIGHT be able to get a ring that shadows my engagement ring! We can at least get an idea of what something like that would cost. Now, that was worth the half an hour we spent in that store! And they did have a beautiful collection of Tanzanite. I think I would like to have the Tanzanite be the main setting with 2 small diamonds on the side of it to add some sparkly. I would also be okay with another colored stone like a sapphire.

Anywho! The adventures continue!

I am also starting to think about what I want my bouquet to have in it and the other flower things. I am thinking of maybe incorporating Japanese maple leaves into the design... hmmmmmmm

Rings!

So, Lauran had a job interview today and afterwards I picked him up and we went to Panda Express for dinner. Our kitchen still hasn't recovered from the dinner party on Monday night... ANYWAY! After dinner we stopped at the Morgan Jewelers at Cascade Station. We spoke with two very knowledgeable and kind girls there, Rachel and Kaira, who helped us look at some options for wedding rings.

I, as it is probably fairly well known by now,  am not a huge fan of the traditional clear diamond. They just don't really do it for me. This is why my engagement ring is Tanzanite. I wanted something more unique and the stone is very rare. So, they showed us a green diamond ring, and then I asked about blue and purple. They showed us several rings and the color of the stone was very much a deep blue/green. I am going to show you a picture of the ring, but the stones were muuuuuuch darker.

It's a smooth inlay with small clear and blue diamonds. Again, the stones were much darker. It was a veeeerrrrry pretty little ring! It was $1000, but on sale for $600. They have sales fairly often. The diamonds and the ring are lifetime guaranteed. Which is awesome.

Then we moved on to mens rings for Lauran. My favorite was this one, though you can't tell how very reddish copper the inlay is in the picture. It was $130:

He also really liked the Tungston ring that had the carbon inlay that was about $200:

I was very pleased with the service at Morgan Jewelers. They even offered to clean my engagement ring while we were shopping around. I did not feel pressured to take anything home today, they told us about their financing options and were very honest about what we were looking at as far as cost. I am planning on looking a few other places, but I have a feeling that we will be back to that place!

Honeymoon!

So, we went and spoke to a travel agent yesterday and got an estimate for the honeymoon. What we were looking at was airfare for two to Maui, 7 days in a condo near the beach and rental car for the week.  We were quoted a little under $2500 for all of that, which I thought was very reasonable... Near the first of the year we will have a better idea of what the 2011 prices for all of that will be, but at least it's a start!

Things we are considering doing while we are there...
Luau. Of course. You have to. It's Hawaii.
Visiting the Maui Ocean Center
Taking a boat out and snorkeling in Turtle Town
Driving the Road out to Hana
Maybe going up to the summit of Haleakala
Eating lots of tropical fruit, relaxing on the beach, swimming and boogie boarding and enjoying life. <3

First Post!

Okay, so you will have to forgive me- I am used to Livejournal.

I wanted to make a blog to help my wedding compatriots and anybody else interested in our wedding have a place to come and see what we've been up to! Also, it's a good way to keep track of stuff and who doesn't need another blog? Really?

Alright, onto the stuff about the wedding...

Just for basics, here is our wedding party line up and basics!
Who: Jennifer Weaver and Lauran Parise
What: A Weddin'!
When: October 8, 2011 at 1 pm
Where: Somewhere in the Portland Metro Area, Oregon
Theme: Fall/Autumn (semi-formal dress)
Attendance: 60-80 people

Bridal Party: Deana Reynolds, Michelle Weaver, Michelle Brady and Amanda Lack
Groomsmen: Edwin Dean III, Jason Reynolds, Chris Thomas, Kevin Clark

Colors will be given to wedding party members as soon as we figure them out. Ladies will wear Converse All-Stars to match their dresses. It will be in a park, so high falutin' shoes will be silly and probably stick in the dirt.

We have had a redirection and a pretty large change in plans. We had originally been intending on having our wedding at Grey Gables in Milwaukie, but the price tag was a little too steep. So, after some talking with my mom and some replanning, we're going to have it in one of Portland's beautiful parks. We're pretty heart-set on Oxbow Park in Troutdale  we had a tour of their group camps and were impressed with two of them and they are very reasonably priced to rent.

Instead of doing a huge catering thing, we're planning on scaling back and doing something more like a BBQ/Potluck! This is where you, my friends, are going to come in. We're going to compile a list on our wedding website of foods we are going to need/want for the reception and take volunteers who wouldn't mind helping us out in that capacity. No reason to start off married life broke, and it won't be anything big. Even if it's something small, we will be grateful. Feel free to email me if you're interested in helping out with these things.

More good news is that my Maid of Honor, Deana, has volunteered to make our wedding cupcakes and small wedding cake. I am so excited. :) Taen/Jennifer Kennedy is going to make our cake topper. The very talented Michelle Brady will be designing our invitations, etc. I will need volunteers to run music for the ceremony and a few other tasks as well. More to come on that later.

The other big thing we decided was the wording of our invitations!

Two lives, two hearts

Joined together in friendship

United together in love.

It is with joy that we

Jennifer Weaver

and

Lauran Parise

Invite you to share

in a celebration of love

As we exchange our wedding vows

On Saturday, the eighth of October

at one o'clock in the afternoon