Where I've been....

I know I've been quiet on the blog-front here and the truth is, it's because life has been downright crazy elsewhere! Wedding planning is in fullswing! I'm less than 5 months out, and it's all coming together. I'm also blogging over on BridalBuds.com!

I was heartbroken after getting my rejection letter from weddingbee but I realized that they're looking for two types of bloggers and I'm way too phenomenal of a writer to be put into a mold. Not to mention when I asked for feedback (twice) I was ignored. But it's ok, I'm happy where I'm at and things are good :) I still love the bee and love the boards and am on it daily, but am happy sharing my wedding journey on BB. So if you're interested in taking a peek at the rest of my wedding-life, you can follow me at www.bridalbuds.com I'm Lotus Bud :)

I'll still be here...I love blogging so much now, I want to use this as an everyday kind of blogging forum, so look for more interesting and exciting posts that aren't just wedding related!

Thanks for stopping by and checking in!

XO.

A Ring for the Groom

It's no secret that I care a lot about my ring set. In fact, just last week, I was able to convince my sweetie to let me have not one, but two diamond wedding bands. They were originally out of our budget, but my jeweler friend offered us a great deal on the second band, a deal that we just could not pass up! Here is my entire ring set:

Aren't they pretty?

Searching for a ring for him, wasn't something we had put much thought in to. He's not very particular and has never worn a ring before so he wanted something simple and comfortable.

We looked at some white gold rings, but I wasn't 100% sold on them. The price of gold is INSANELY expensive right now and gold scratches easily. My wedding set is gold, and while I can see scratches on the back side of the ring, it's the back ... no one else sees that. His ring will be solid gold, and I was afraid the scratches would bother him after a little bit.

Then there's platinum, but that is double the cost of gold, and since he really doesn't care that much, I think that was out too.

So I began researching other options, and came across Tungsten. I learned that Tungsten is one of the most durable metals and it's super shiny. Better yet, it's next to impossible to scratch and never loses its shine, so it always looks brand new. Even better, the price is incredibly affordable. (I need to step in and say here that this decision was not driven purely by price. We spent a lot of money on my rings because they were important to me, and while the significance of a wedding ring was important to him, the actual ring was not. Makes sense right?)

We found InfinityTungsten.com and after looking at their different styles, these were his top three picks:

So, what do you think? Has anyone ordered a Tungsten band for their honey? Which of these do you like the best?

Let them eat cake!

So on the heels of my post about our adorable cake topper, I guess I should next discuss the actual cake that we will be having. Makes sense right?

I knew that I wanted a simpler cake....while I love looking at gorgeous elaborate cake designs, sometimes I think they are too pretty to eat.

See what I mean? Who would want to cut into and destroy this gorgeous cake?? / Image via hottestbirthday.info

The look that I think we were going for, is something more like these cakes

All images via theknot.com

I think that the third one is my favorite (I mean, you do know about my obsession with anchors!) but we loved the simplicity of the first two as well, so we figured that we would show these to the baker and see if they could put something together for us. And they did!

We met with Cake for Occasions on the only snowy Saturday we've had this winter (of course) but it was so worth the trek out in the snowy weather. This bakery is the only one I ever even thought of considering. They are very well-known around here as having the best cake, so I was excited to schedule our tasting!

She let us try several samples too, and by samples I mean full pieces of cake. It was unbelievable. Oh, it was also 10am too, so cake turned out to be our breakfast.

Doesn't it all look so yummy??

And of course, the "after" shot,

Not sure about the blurriness, but you get the point! :)

In the end the three flavors we ended up choosing were 1) vanilla cake soaked in Grand Marnier with fresh strawberry and buttercream frosting 2) the traditional red velvet with cream cheese buttercream frosting and 3) chocolate cake dusted with espresso and filled with ganache and mocha buttercream frosting. My mouth is seriously watering just thinking about how yummy these cakes are going to be!!

We also opted to have the cake plated and set up as a station so that our guests will be able to choose their own flavor. Although, I'm not sure how anyone is going to be able to choose. Someone please remind me to eat the cake that day ok??

So there you have it ..... probably the easiest wedding decision we've made to date! How did your cake tasting go? Anyone else going the route with multiple flavors?

And the men wore grey....

I've talked an awful lot about my dress and my bridesmaid dresses. I struggled over what we, the girls, would wear because there are so many freaking options. For the guys, I really didn't give it much thought. Sorry boys!


My colors are (just to refresh your memory) navy and white with pops of a lime-y, apple-y green color. My girls will be in floor-length navy silk-shantung gowns. Since our wedding does fall a bit on the fancier side, I knew that I wanted the guys to be in tuxes. But not black tuxes. I personally don't like the way that navy and black look together, I think that it kind of looks like a bruise. Not exactly the look we are going for :/

 

 

Not loving this look so much..../Image via picasaweb.google.com

Plus, both are really dark colors for a mid-July wedding and I didn't think it flowed with our overall theme. I still wanted it to be "summer-y". Then one day, a few months ago, I fell in love with these photos:

Image via Charlotte Geary Photography

 

 

Image via red ribbon studio

I loved the grey! And so did Keith, which is even more important since he is the one wearing it. They look light and summer-y but because they are tuxes, they still look formal. And as much as I love the stripe ties in the second photo, I love the solid navy better.


So we went to our local Men's Wearhouse a couple Saturdays ago to see what we had for options. We chose MW because they have locations everywhere and because they advertise a free tux rental for the groom with 5 other rentals. Since we need a total of 9 rentals, Keith's will be free. Score! Anyway, back to our visit...it turns out, we only have ONE option, so the choice was pretty much made for us.

Calvin Klein tux/ Image via menswearhouse.com

We decided against the vest, and opted for a white tie for Keith (to match me of course) and navy blue ties for the groomsmen. I am so excited to see how handsome the boys looked all dressed up!

Anyone else agree with me on the whole black/blue thing? What are your guys going to wear?