We've ordered our wedding invitations and should have those within the next couple of months. This leaves me plenty of time to practice my good handwriting before I have to address them and send them out in mid February. (Its probably weird, but I actually love to write. Not as in novels, but as in handwriting. So I'm actually pretty stoked about getting to address the tons and tons of invitations.)
The picture of us above was taken the other day after we went cake tasting! We tried two different places, and even though I'd love to keep trying delicious cakes, we fell in love with the first place we went - Elena's Cakes. She was wonderful, and the cakes were fantastic! We tried 8 different flavors, and if you know either Logan or me, you won't find it odd at all that my cake will be chocolate and his will be vanilla. I l-o-v-e chocolate, and he prefers vanilla. So my cake will be chocolate kahlua with chocolate buttercream filling, iced with white buttercream icing, and his cake will be an apple butter cake with apple butter filling, iced with milk chocolate icing. We didn't actually get to try our combinations of cakes and icings (since most brides have white cake and most grooms have chocolate cake), so Elena is letting me come back tomorrow to taste the cakes with the icings we've chosen. She is wonderful! I don't have any pictures of what our cakes will look like, but she designed them on paper for us and they are perfect.
Now on to my favorite part - flowers! We've chosen to work with A Stylish Soiree and couldn't be happier. Their style of floral design is exactly what I was hoping for - lush, fluffy, soft flowers with small hints of more structured flowers (like orchids and gardenias) for texture. They have such creative ideas, and I can't wait to see everything all put together. The day we're getting married is actually right in the middle of cherry blossom season (which only lasts 3 weeks each year), so we're going to take advantage of that and have cherry blossom branches flown in to be the focal point of our tall centerpieces at the reception. Below is an example of some floral arrangements they've done in the past using cherry blossom branches. Ours will actually be in tall glass vases with hydrangeas, roses, peonies and tulips at the top of the vase, surrounding the branches. Of course we'll have tons of candles on the tables with the flowers too.
Here's an example of what I think Logan's (and all the groomsmen's) boutonnieres will look like - a pale pink cymbidium orchid. A bouquet similar to what mine will look like. Mine will have a mixture of pale pink and white flowers, including peonies, hydrangeas, gardenias and orchids. The bridesmaids will have bouquets similar to this. They will include varying shades of pink hydrangeas, peonies and orchids. We're also SO excited about our DJ, Colby Logan, who will also provide our event lighting and large chinese lanterns. I was able to find a picture of his DJ booth and some chinese lantern he hung over a dance floor. We will have something similar to this! I am a HUGE fan of event lighting. I think it adds so much to the overall feel of the room. We will have not only uplighting around the room (that can change colors throughout the night to match the mood) but also floral pinspotting on all of the tables. I love how this looks. It really makes the flowers pop! Examples of how uplighting really enhances the room. (All of the lighting in these pictures was done by our guy, Colby Logan!)
I'm also really excited about our photographer, BluDoor Studios. Since we haven't taken our engagement pictures yet, I found a couple of pictures they took at weddings that I liked.
All in all, everything is really coming together, and it's going to be beautiful! We still need to pick out table linens, and start thinking about the ceremony order and all of the "first dance" songs, but we've still got 5 months to plan. Be checking your mail over the next few weeks for the Save the Date magnets!