At first, I wanted to have long hair for the big day and after some time, I realized that it wouldn’t be reflective of who I really am so I decided I should find good short hair cuts that were classic but had a little cute “edge” to it.

For the makeup, I’m torn between the dark eyes or natural all around. Any feedback?

Charlize Theron, Premiere Women of Hollywood event

Rihanna Fenty, photoshoot

Megan Fox, MTV Movie Awards

Hilary Duff, Blender Magazine

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron

Cassie Ventura

Rihanna Fenty

I love TheKnot.com. It’s a great resource for brides and I cannot keep count of how many times I have heard people suggest the website to me. No hard feelings.

Tonight, I decided to browse the May 2009 community section and was quite floored.

Most have their invitations printed and ready to send out, some have even sent them out already. Some have their centerpiece supplies stored away in their closets. Some have their shoes, their undergarments, their garters. Some have their rehearsal dinners planned and their entertainment booked. I could go on, but it will only make my throat feel tighter.

Oh geez, someone please enlighten me.

Depending on your perspective, this could or could not be wedding related.

I peruse the blogs pretty often when I’m at work with downtime, and came across this article on Fashionista.com. Don’t be fooled by the name, I am no “fashionista”. I think that’s a silly term. I just look at it for the sales and any other interesting bits and pieces I can gather on fashion trends. What can I say, I live in New York and a part of me has become a product of this environment.

On to the free cosmetic giveaway. Apparently, because of a lawsuit that was filed, several large department stores are being forced to give away free products to consumers and anyone who walks through their doors on January 20th. View the list here.

Source: Fashionista.com

This is a repost from an inspiration wedding website I visit religiously on a daily basis, Style Me Pretty. I thought this was really cute and could be turned into something more than Thank You cards, such as invitations or something along those lines…

Materials Needed:
1. Sewing Machine
2. Pinking Shears or Rotary Cutter
3. One piece of Ultrasuede fabric
4. Satin Ribbon
5. Coordinating Threads
6. Metal Ruler
7. X-acto Knife

Instructions:
Step 1: With scissors, trim ultrasued to 5.5″ x 8.75″. Cut a piece of coordinating ribbon to 20″ long. Align Ribbon to the center of the fabric lengthwise and pin about 3.5″ down from the top on the right side of fabric. Secure ribbon with a sewing machine. Fold bottom of the envelope up about 2.5″. Sew both sides shut with a sewing machine.

Step 2: Measure .5″ in from the top center of the envelope. With an x-acto knife, cute a straight line through the fabric just wide enough to accommodate your ribbon. Measure .25″ up and repeat the same cut. Thread ribbon through slots.

Step 3: Place a standard 4-Bar card in the envelope or download this template of cards and print out onto card stock on your home printer. Follow the instructions in the template on how to trim out.

Step 4: Once the card is placed in the envelope fold top over and pull snug. Using pinking shears or ruler and rotary pinking cutter, trim each side to get the decorative scalloped edge. Make sure to do this step last so that the scallop edges line up. Snip ends of ribbon to points and tie in a bow!

Make sure to visit Style Me Pretty for the step-by-step photos.

This has not one iota of cosmic significance, but I thought I would blog about it anyway.

Is it me, or am I not stressed out enough? Silly question, I know. According to the stories I hear and magazines (and blogs) I read, I should be pulling my hair out and biting my nails. Instead, I’m sitting here calm and settled.  

I feel like I am in a bit of a slump. Things keep thrusting themselves at me to be done, which (unfortunately) makes me want to do them even less. Perhaps it’s my horrible trait of procrastination that is calming me. You know what that means. In a month, I will be in a sea of anguish and pounding my head against the wall, and of course, pulling my hair out and biting my nails.

This leaves me in a state of uncomfortable comfortable-ness. Only 4 months left and the only thing we have accomplished thus far is this website.

Perhaps I should stop rambling now and go call a vendor. Yeah, I think I might do that.

Anyone that knows me well knows that I have an obsession with crazy shoes, a style only my sister-in-law can relate to. I own a plethora of shoes, shoved into any empty corner of our closet, of which my fiance can use against me when I try to  buy a new pair. I sneak in a few pairs every now and then and purposely wait a few weeks before I decide to wear them hoping that he won’t remember. It doesn’t work very well.

Anyway, that was more of a rant.

I really wish that I could have translated my normal shoe fetish into a wedding style that would satisfy me, but these are the few cases that I must pick comfort over style. I have decided against stilettos and will be wearing flats. This will help me walk easier on grass and down steps. I assume that I would be nervous enough walking down the aisle, I don’t want to worry about sinking into the ground while walking. Besides, noone will see my shoes anyway beneath the dress.

I want to wear purple flats, but I can’t  find any for the life of me!

Has anyone seen any cute ones anywhere?

I have been battling with myself about centerpieces for a long time! I love orchids of any kind, especially dendrobium orchids.

Orchids, via Jessica Claire

Orchids, via electic images

It would be ideal to have orchids at our wedding, but there are hefty price tags on those babies. Instead, I’m entertaining the idea of using carnations as our centerpieces. I always disliked carnations when they’re used individually, but I really like the look they have when bunched in a ball. Whatever it is we do, we’ll be doing it ourselves.

Carnation table setting, via hystudio

I have grown to really love the look of that. It’s so pretty and will definitely be affordable for 20-25 tables. I will post a DIY blog once we do a mock of one and it becomes DIY-blog-post worthy.

I shot up in bed this morning at the thought of only having 5 months to plan our wedding. The time has flown by, and now that we have our website out of the way… we are ready to move on to other things such as invitations. Except, we’ve been sitting idle doing nothing.

Wake up, Natalie. FIVE MONTHS!

Everything else has seemed peachy keen, until now. Things have come easily, I love planning and getting things together. But, there’s that other part of the equation. Noone else will work on my schedule. Therefore, we need to book our justice of the peace, entertainment and hotels.

The hardest part will definitely be paying for everything. It’s easy to sit here and imagine all the pretty, colorful purples we will have in our centerpieces or that nice photo booth we want. Then comes reality, where you have to dish out the cash for what you really want.

What we have left to do:

Today is a special today.
Today marks the day that I check another “To-Do” off of my “To-Do” list.

We have found the bridesmaid dresses and my girls have all purchased them.

I had a pretty standard criteria on what I was looking for. Of course, the purple had to be the perfect shade. I did not want my bridesmaids to wear something too typical or anything you can find from a David’s Bridal catalog. I wanted it to be a cocktail type dress that was simple and cute. It had to be a nice dress that they can wear again.

Albeit, it’s cliche of a bride-to-be to say that she wants her bridesmaids to be able to wear their dress again and then go on and choose a floofy thing that pretty much makes a mockery of the entire phrase “wear again”. But, I think I was able to do it.

For those who know me well, my style is anything but ordinary. Simple, yes. Ordinary, no. I want our wedding to be simple but not ordinary.

Without further adieu, I present to you the bridesmaid dresses.

I think it’s perfect. Heck, it even has pockets. Any dress that has pockets is awesome in my book.

We have also been planning our Bachelor/Bachelorette party.

I cannot believe we are only 6 months away. It is going to fly by!

Visit the Engagement Page to learn more about our special day.