thankful list

This is one of those non-wedding related posts. Seeing that Thanksgiving is right around the corner (read: tomorrow), I thought it would be good to make a list of all the things I'm thankful for.

- my family
- my boyfriend and his family
- my adopted family in Boston
- my dog Coda
- my senses
- hockey season and the Boston Bruins
- my friends that have stood by me through hell and high water, good times and bad
- impressionist art
- my cameras and photography
- my iphone and the fact it lets me see my nephew on facetime every other week
- cupcakes
- my kitchen aid mixer
- sunshine
- swimming in the ocean
- airplanes because they take me to see my family
- humor
- fleece blankets and down comforters

colors...

So I think we've narrowed the colors down to marine or peacock (blue), watermelon (pink), and grey. The guys will wear grey suits. Shannon loves this dress below, in the marine or peacock color. I found some other bridesmaids' dresses in the watermelon color, also shown below! I love love love the pink. It adds a great pop of color to the wedding party.


OR...

the cat is out of the bag

Well, the cat is out of the bag. That is, almost everyone knows that we are planning to get married even though I don't have the ring yet. We've told our families and those in the wedding party, and some other close friends. It's very exciting. He said I can expect the ring sometime after the holidays and he's planning a big engagement surprise. It feels much more real now that everyone knows!

In other wedding-related news, I think we are leaning towards a navy blue(marine)-grey-pink (watermelon) color scheme, or navy blue (marine)-plum-grey. I love love love the pink color (watermelon) for the bridesmaids but haven't made up my mind quite yet. Shannon will definitely wear navy (marine) and the guys are going to get grey suits. I went to David's Bridal today and looked at color swatches so we'll see!

florist!

Yay! We decided on a florist: The Tangled Web Creative Floral Design. Jen is fantastic and I'm super excited to work with her!

bridesmaids' dresses

Some ideas for Bridesmaid dresses...all from David's Bridal. I like the idea of picking a color palatte and having the ladies all pick dresses from that group of colors. I definitely want them to be able to pick dresses that work best for their body type. I like the idea of a jewel color palatte...marine (navy), purple, burgandy. I know it's not super-summery but they're my favorite colors!

cutest bow tie!

From Etsy Seller BabybyStevie. Got this one for Asher for the wedding!! So cute.

seating charts

I'm kind of in love with this Red Line seating chart. I love the idea of naming the tables after stops on the Red Line. I could take pictures of all the different stops to put on the tables. It's especially appropriate since we want some of our Engagement pictures to be taken at the T stop. We also will be getting the BBQ from Redbones at Davis (one of the stops), and the wedding is in Wollaston (one of the stops). I'm liking this one a lot. The runner up is below. Also a contender!
from Etsy Seller AColorful Life

from Etsy Seller ApplepineDesign

adorable cake plate!

from etsy seller vesselsandwares

Honeymoon Ideas

We've been talking about honeymoon ideas lately and are leaning towards Hawaii! I loved it there when I went to Oahu and look forward to the idea of exploring other islands. Mr. Wollaston also wants to go somewhere that he can go running safely. Maui and Kauai are peaking my interest today and I found some good honeymoon packages that include both islands for a reasonable price for about 10 days. A little longer than I had initially thought of going for, and I'm not sure Kevin can get that much time off work but we'll see. Otherwise we can just go to one island and stay for a week. Beaches and hiking and yummy food! So exciting!

And the winner is...

Ordered these today! I should have just gone to ModCloth in the first place when I was looking for shoes. Hopefully they're as cute in person! From ModCloth

shoes!

I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing flats to the wedding, for the sheer sake of comfort and me not wanting to fall over in heels on my wedding day. I'm still liking the idea of getting custom made Converse (can't post a picture here because it won't let me!) with the cupcake print on them, or getting the pink sparkly ones that I've seen around (and posted previously). But in the case that I wear traditional flats, here are some options (first one is my favorite)...

JS shoes (via DSW)

from Chinese Laundry (via DSW)

from Etsy Seller TheGeneration

from Chinese Laundry (via Piperlime)

Card Box

I'm sort of in love with this wedding card box that I saw on a wedding on the Ruffled blog. It's from Door County Woodworks and is $125. So adorable! It's a little more than I had budgeted for but is so cute. I'll have to think about this one.

Maid of Honor Jewelry

I found this necklace on Etsy and thought it would be perfect for my Maid of Honor since she has angel wings tattooed on her back. I love the addition of the initials.

from Etsy Seller ERMOriginals

hair accessories

from etsy seller babybirdieboutique $18 for two headbands! Going to order them in Navy and Khaki, one for me and one for my sister. They match the rosettes on my dress!!

cupcakes

We are going to do cupcakes at the wedding. I'm pretty certain we'll be getting them from The Cake Spot in Wollaston who happen to make the most delightful cupcakes. We're thinking Red Velvet, Chocolate Mousse, and maybe Oreo? Now the question is how to display them...I've listed a couple of options below. Luckily we have lots of time so I think I'd be able to collect enough cake stands to do a vintage-y looking display if we go that route.

Good old fashioned cake stands...we could collect about 10-15 of them from GoodWill, yard sales, etc and use them...(Image from Amazon)

$25 from Wilton, holds about 30 cupcakes, so we'd need at least 4 of them

from Cupcaketree.com for $42. Made of cardboard, would seriously need some love and decoration.

Cupcake-stand.com for $79. Made of MDF with a laminate coating.

The story of the budget

Money. Since we are going to paying for the majority of the wedding ourselves, money is on the mind. Our budget is coming out to be about $11,700 if we include the car rental that just got added today. Mind you, the average for a wedding in Quincy is between $22,992 and $38,320 according to www.costofwedding.com.

We got extremely lucky and found a venue that is right on the water and in our budget. They allow you to bring in your own caterer. Enter Redbones, one of our favorite BBQ restaurants in the city. Since it's BBQ it's relatively low cost and delicious. We are doing cupcakes instead of a regular cake.

Our biggest expenses are (in this order): catering (about $2500), the photographer ($1000), the reception venue ($900 for 8 hours), the Church ($800 for the rental, Priest, and musician), our Day of Coordinator ($600), paper (the invitations, save the dates, rsvps, etc, about $457), my dress ($420, plus alterations), and so on.

I got extremely lucky and got my dress (I know, very early) from Brides Against Breast Cancer. It was $420 and the money all went to charity. Originally I was going to DIY all the paper products but we fell in love with an invitation on Etsy and will be going with that. I am designing the programs and guest book alternative (and maybe the Save the Date cards but we may go with Etsy for that too).

We are purposefully having a long engagement so that we can save enough to pay for the majority of the wedding.

Transportation Idea

The conversation came up today about how we will get around on the day of our wedding. I had assumed that we would just use our good 'ole car since it's about 5 minutes from our house to the Church and another 5 minutes to the reception site. However, Mr. Wollaston has different ideas. He hasn't really voiced much that he really wants wedding-wise, except he seems to have his heart set on us having a snazzy car for that day. Let me introduce the 1957 Speedster.

A 1957 Speedster from Classic Cars and Byways...$530 for Sat-Sun rental. I've added it to our budget and it pushes us a little higher than I really wanted to go, but we're still at a realistic number. He is really into this idea and I think it's important to honor that.

Anchor necklace

from Etsy Seller LuxeAdornments

lighthouse votive holders

E-Bay $60 for 12...Also available on WeddingFavors.org

maid of honor dresses

Feeding the Doves dress from ModCloth

Such Great Lengths dress from ModCloth

Cappucino Foam dress from ModCloth

Strawberry Iced Tea Dress from Mod Cloth

Raspberry Bouquet dress from ModCloth Raspberry Iced Tea dress from ModCloth

Jane Frost Dress from ModCloth

Vocal Celebrity Dress from ModCloth

lobster trap card box!

I love the idea of using a lobster trap for a card box! This one is $50 on Amazon. Completely goes with the nautical theme.

from A Paper Proposal.

wedding bands

from etsy seller Prettythingsgalore

Update on Vendors

Day of Coordinator: Celebrations by Karen F. Murphy
Hair & Make Up: Ashley from Lady Luck Boutique!
Photography: Erica Scott McGrath
Ceremony Location: St. Ann's Catholic Church
Reception Location: Squantum Yacht Club
Catering: Redbones BBQ
Invitations: Whimsical Prints
Save the Dates: DIY (probably printing from CatPrint)
Flowers: The Tangled Web Creative Floral Design
Cupcakes: The Cake Spot

That's it for now... :)

cake topper!

from etsy seller ReadyGo

Squantum Yacht Club- Pictures!

the view of the deck