Wedding Website

I am having a lot of fun starting to put together the details of our upcoming wedding. We have confirmed our venue which is the biggest step so far. Detroit, here we come! I have started a wedding website to post info for our guests and anyone who is interested in our details.

Wedding Weekend: Part 2

Unfortunately, I did not get a single picture of the bride and groom at the second “wedding” this weekend. This is the best shot I could find of Evan and the groom, our good friend, Kevin.

The second "wedding" last Saturday was actually a reception only party for our friends in Richmond who tied the knot in a private ceremony this summer. They invited friends and family to celebrate with them at a restaurant/bar, the Bank, in downtown Richmond. We drove right from the Charlottesville wedding to our hotel, dropped off our bags, I changed my shoes and we headed to the Bank (which was fortunately only two blocks away because I was wearing runway shoes). It was really nice to see all of our Richmond friends. We have kept in touch with a few of them, but hadn’t seen most of them in three years. It was nice to see who had moved and who was still in their post-college apartments, who had changed jobs and who were back in school. We fell right in to where we had left off and partied like we were in our early twenties. :) After the celebration, we headed to our hotel room and ordered Dominos, since we missed the food at both celebrations. Evan was asleep before the pizza came, but I chowed down and he had a nice pre-breakfast for his hung over self the next morning.

We dragged ourselves out of bed on Sunday both with big headaches, but we dusted ourselves off to meet more friends for brunch. When I first met Evan, he lived in a split Richmond house, one apartment on top and one below. The apartment above was Evan and his roommate Shawn and the apartment below was Fletch. Fletch is absolutely a character and those three boys had some bachelor times, most of which are unmentionable. I was so glad we were able to catch up with him and his girlfriend, Carter. We are all a little more grown up now, but I’m pretty sure we all showed up to brunch with hangovers. Richmond is just that kind of city.

Wedding Weekend: Part 1

Now that we are engaged it seems like things are all wedding all the time, but I couldn’t have planned that we would have not one, but two, weddings to attend this past weekend! I did, however, RSVP that we would attend both and Evan was along for the ride.

The first wedding was the Mapp/Bressan wedding in Charlottesville, VA. My friend, Jenn Mapp, famous for her CIBU videos on youtube, wore a Christian Siriano original gown at her outdoor ceremony at Ash Lawn Highland. She was absolutely stunning and the ceremony (although quite cold) was beautiful. We walked down a cobblestone path through a garden maze to the intimate ceremony site. (Side note: You know a bride is a fabulous woman when most of her guests are in stilettos at an outdoor wedding.)

The couple wrote their own vows, which were sincerely beautiful. The groom could hardly keep himself together when reciting his, and I think that even Evan was a little teary. The couple exchanged a romantic first kiss and we all headed to the tent for the reception. We warmed up at the cocktail hour with their signature cocktail, hot rum cider. Well, I warmed up with hot rum cider and Evan did his duty and ordered a soda since he would be driving us to our next wedding reception in Richmond, VA. We waited as long as we could for the bride and groom to make their entrance so we could get a good photo, but finally agreed we had to go if we weren’t going to be too late to the next reception. As we were leaving we ran into the bride and groom on their way back to the reception. It was perfect timing for us to get a picture and give our personal congratulations to the happy couple.

Engagement Party - Part 3: The Dress

My little brother is the best brother in the entire world. He has really taken care of me and mom in the fashion department since he hit it big. Our party weekend, he sent me beautiful white roses, provided drinks for all our guests with blue champagne glasses and gave us two wonderful engagement gifts. The only uh-oh moment was when we realized the dress he had for me to wear wasn’t coming. Here is a quick refresh from my previous post about the dresses I tried on for his most recent fashion show:

“I tried on two dresses, the one I wore (to the fashion show) and another strapless short party dress, both in the red print. I was in love with both dresses but went with the halter style since the strapless was on hold for another celeb. The strapless dress may end up in my closet eventually since no one ended up wearing it.”

This strapless dress was to be my party dress for our engagement party. I had been planning on this since the day after his runway show. He had his assistant priority mail my dress, but unfortunately she forgot to put “Saturday Delivery” on the box. I’m sure her life/job is crazy, so I don’t blame her at all. But you bet I was having a panic moment at 2pm the day before the party when we realized, I had nothing to wear!! Fortunately, I was able to find a dress that I liked at Martin + Osa (a new favorite store of mine) and everything turned out fine.

My party dress came perfectly packed the Monday after the party along with a winter jacket with a sticky note on it that read, "Do Not Sell, Shannon's Jacket". I really can't complain, I am one lucky sister. I will just have to find another party for my party dress, or make Evan take me on a hot date.

Engagement Party - Part 2: My Sidekick

I have a four year old niece who is the daughter of my stepsister, Melody. She really likes Evan and me because Evan almost always has a present for her when we see her and I give her ballet lessons in the living room. She was my sidekick for most of the engagement party. She followed me while I mingled with guests and posed for pictures. She sat with me while I attempted to eat and helped me pick out which dessert I should try first. she told all the guests, "what are we going to do with all these babies?" since there were three babies under the age of 1 year also in attendance. I really loved her company, but her mother was worried that she was bothering me. For a little break, we asked her if she could "guard" the presents. My niece took this task very seriously and "helped" by taking all of the cards and organizing them in a nice neat pile on the coffee table. That's right folks. All the cards were pulled off their gifts and put in a pile! We were able to figure out where most of the gifts came from, with the exception of a couple bottles of wine. Melody suggested that we address our cards, "Thank you for the lovely gift." for those who we weren't sure about. I appreciate that my little partner took her job so seriously. She can do no wrong in my book.

Our First Wedding Gift

Our wedding is not until next summer, but Evan and I got an early start on our registry because it is just plain fun to start a registry. I really didn’t expect to receive any gifts for a quite a while, so I was super surprised when two huge Crate and Barrel boxes showed up at our apartment the beginning of last week. Evan and I so excited to open our first wedding gifts barely got them up the stairs before popping open the tape. To our immense surprise the card read…

“Congratulations on your engagement! May your life together be full of many reasons to celebrate. Wishing you the best: LuAnn, Eran & Payless Team”

Amazing! The Payless people are so incredibly thoughtful. They keep me and my mother stocked on shoes from each season. And now, they have gone out of their way to find our registry and send beautiful gifts. They sent a punch bowl and a cake display that we used at our engagement party this weekend! Every time we see them at my brother’s runway shows they are always so friendly and nice. This is such a thoughtful gesture I just had to share the excitement.

Engagement Party

This Sunday, my mother hosted a brunch at her house in Annapolis to celebrate our Engagement. It was a party we had been planning for months and I was so excited how things came together. My father flew in from Florida, my brother came down from New York and Evan’s parents traveled all the way from Michigan. All of my bridesmaids, family friends, coworkers and neighbors were there to celebrate with us. It was a perfect day.

My mother opened her home and prepared the food: She did a wonderful job putting together egg casseroles, honey hams, cooked vegetables and fruit along with appetizers of tomato and cheese and raw veggies. Mom’s friend, Candy, prepared a delicious Italian sausage bite in a baked wonton cup. The house and yard looked absolutely beautiful.

My father and I made the desserts: We spent Friday evening and Saturday morning, baking up a storm. He made an almond cheesecake, chocolate marble and Oreo bunt cake, peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes and spice cake cupcakes. I made white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and two batches of my strawberry frosted, white cake cupcakes. Evan’s father, Bob, and our friend Shawn helped frost the day of the party. Yes, we have some sweet lovers in the family.

Evan’s parents provided the flowers: Jane and I made a stop at Whole Foods the morning of the party and picked out some flowers to go on each table. Jane (with the help of our friends from Richmond) put together absolutely beautiful arrangements.

My brother supplied Champagne: He knows what makes a party (for obvious reasons) and searched online to find the perfect party champagne glasses. He ordered these beautiful blue (plastic) Champagne glasses that went perfectly with our Bluebird theme I had posted on my blog months ago. He also made sure we would have enough Champagne for many many mimosas.

Evan and Michael did the yard work: For weeks leading up to the party, my mother planted grass, Michael trimmed and mulched. Evan help mulch arranged mums and put down pavers. The yard looked more beautiful then ever before.

The whole day was truly a family affair. The party was absolutely beautiful and I was so excited to get everyone together to celebrate with us.

Cake Project

Although I probably won’t make my own wedding cake, I thought it would be fun to try. My beautiful blue cake stand was sitting on my kitchen counter just wishing for a cake to hold. I am on vacation this week, so I had nothing but time to attempt this project. I don’t have any experience making layered cakes, especially not from scratch. I found a red velvet cake recipe that looked pretty straight forward and decided to just use canned cream cheese frosting. I did find simple cream cheese frosting recipe, but I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. I had to double the cake batter recipe to get all of my layers. I was also working with two different round pans, but the sizes were almost the same. (If I decide to make my own wedding cake, I will invest in matching pans.) Looking back, this project was not set up for success. I had mismatched pans, a brand new recipe and had to make several visits to the store to get more frosting, extra food coloring and new buttermilk. I am on vacation this week, so I didn’t mind the three trips to the store and it didn’t matter that it took me two days to finish the cake. The final result turned out pretty impressive if I do say so myself. We haven’t cut it yet, so I don’t know what it tastes like, but I want to savor the look of it for a few more hours.

(this is what I look like when I'm baking)

Something(s) Blue

My excitement about our engagement has not faded one ounce since it became official on July 4th. And although we still have no date or place that doesn’t mean the wedding planning process is on hold. I have made some important moves in the last month. I got my little brother to agree to make my dress and the bridesmaid dresses and I opened a wedding savings account! These are big moves.

One of the first fun decisions Evan and I have made is that we want to incorporate the Bluebird of Happiness into our décor/theme. We collected these figurines when we lived in Arkansas and took Evan’s sister, Jessica, and my friend, Sarah, to the shop when they came to visit. We sent bluebirds to our family as gifts and came to find out that Evan’s Grandparents were already collectors. We are not sure how we will include the birds in to our day, but it will be nice to use them to tribute family that won’t be with us and the place where we became a couple.

With this trend in mind, today, I was doing some eBay browsing and came across this cobalt blue cake stand. I realize that I am doing things way out of order, but I couldn’t help myself. I bid on it and the bidding just happened to be closing. Needless to say, I won the bid. If I don’t end up using it for the wedding, that is ok, it is a beautiful stand.

Mustaches and Non-Matching Bridesmaids

I have been on a million and a half bride/wedding/party planning websites and have found a couple trends that I absolutely love!!!

The first being mustache pictures. I have come across pictures from all different kinds of sites, alternative bride sites, traditional bride sites and party sites all featuring these adorable mustache pictures. Martha Stewart has this mustache template on her website and calls it “Party Mustache”. I first came across this mustache on Party Perfect blog featuring a yellow party by Simply Radiant. (I am also going to be using this yellow theme for an upcoming get together.) I can see how this has become a trend. People don’t want to take themselves too seriously. Taking wedding portraits (in my experience) can be forced and uncomfortable. It’s nice to see how much fun these bring to the wedding photos.

The other trend that I have for a while decided I’d like to follow is bridesmaids in all different dresses. My bridesmaids do not all have the same figure and I want them to all look and feel beautiful. I couldn’t decide if they should be a version of the same dress in the same color or completely different dresses. I think I am leaning towards completely different dresses in a similar color palette.

Brother, are you reading this? You may have a busy season coming up, but plan to squeeze in some fittings. xox

Wedding (Web) Sites

Now that we are officially engaged there are magazines pilling up on the coffee table, new folders on my desktop and new favorite sites adding up like crazy. It has been a lot of fun researching and reading wedding stories of do it yourself brides. At first, Evan and I were having anxiety about the cost of a wedding, but after a week of research I think we can get creative, have the wedding we want and not go into debt. Still no date, place or anything really, but it has been a lot of fun looking for inspirations and new crafty projects. I am going to use my side bars to keep track of my wedding finds and crafty projects, but here is a list of the favorites so far:

Style Me Pretty

One Lovely Day by Project Wedding

Wedding Bee

Martha Stewart Weddings

Hostess with the Mostess

Engagement Story

I didn’t know how I felt about putting the very personal story of Evan and my engagement up on the internet for all to see, but I am being harassed by most of the people I know…so here is the story.

Last week was a very hectic week for me and Evan. We had my Grandfather’s birthday Monday, my Mom’s birthday Tuesday, the birth of my nephew, Owen, on Wednesday, a performance on Wednesday night, Evan’s birthday on Friday and Evan’s Mom visiting us for the 4th of July weekend. We both had a four day week last week, so we were trying to fit 5 days worth of work in to 4 days. That’s a lot of stuff going on. We have both been exhausted and stressed, so I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when Evan said he’d been nauseous and anxious.

On the 4th of July, Evan, his mother and I went to Bay Ridge to watch the neighborhood parade with my Mom, Michael, Miah, Eric, Debbie and their two kids, Alena and Aiden. It was quite a family affair. The highlight of the day (up to that point) was the Bay Ridge races. We had family in all the speed races and the egg toss. Evan ran the 25 and over race (with my ring in his pocket.) The kids won some of the speed races. Eric won 1st place in the 50 and over men’s race and my mother won 2nd place in the 50 and older women’s race. She competed against one other woman and they both were given 1st, 2nd and 3rd place ribbons! It was a hysterical event.

After the races, we all went back to our next door neighbor, Rick’s house as he was having a party with tons of food. We ate and drank and relaxed in his backyard, then moved to our backyard and were just resting up for another party and fireworks that evening. Evan asked me if I wanted to walk down to the end of the street. This is nothing out of the ordinary because we always walk down to the end of the street to look at the water and get a moment away from the family. We got to the end of the street and Evan asked if I wanted to walk down on the beach and I said, “No, I don’t want to get all sandy.” Then he said ok, let’s just walk a little ways down the road. Then on a grassy spot overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, Evan fished in his pocket and pulled out a ring box. When he pulled it out of his pocket something else fell out with it and I saw panic on his face, but it wasn’t the ring that fell. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I kissed him and said yes!

After our engagement was official, we went back to my Mom’s house and the family freaked out for a few hours. Debbie went and got a bottle of Champagne and we toasted in the backyard. Then all the girls told the stories of their engagements and we got ready to go to the next party.

The last party of the day was at a beautiful mansion overlooking the point of the Chesapeake Bay. They had a band, a bar and delicious appetizers. They house is located in the perfect spot to see fireworks. We ran into neighbors and were excited to share our news with anyone who would listen. We danced the night away and then spent the night at my Mom’s house.

I am pretty amazed how excited I feel. We have been dating for 3 years and have lived in 3 different states in 6 different apartment/houses. We have been through a lot and I always knew we would eventually get married, but now it is really real.