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Oh man…where did the time go?!  Sorry for my absence…wedding planning and life just sorta took over!!  But alas…I am back and full of fun stuff to tell you about!

First up…MY SHOWER!!

I went back home to Nebraska over President’s Day weekend, and somewhere in the jammed packed schedule I had was my bridal shower!  Two of my fabulous aunts threw the shower for me and it was perfect!

Aunt J on the left…me in the middle..and Aunt K on the right!

We ate Pizza and cake, played some non-cheesy games, and I opened gifts with a time-of-day theme.

What is a time-of-day theme you ask??  Well each guest was sent a specific time with their invite for which their gift should correspond…brilliant no?  I think it made the whole gift-opening process less awkward for me and a little more fun for my guests.  I opened the gifts in the order of the day…and it was fun to see what all the ladies in my life came up with (and what they thought I might be doing! haha).

For instance…my Aunt C decided that around 8pm I would probably like to drink wine (yep!), watch a movie (yep!), and eat popcorn (double yep!)!

My little niece (to my right) was quite the helper when it came to opening gifts!

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It is true.  I am very indecisive… I may have mentioned this before.  It drives Lance insane and isn’t one of the best qualities to have when trying to plan a wedding.

An example:  I thought I wanted some type of flower piece in my hair, but now I think I want to headband it.

I am Loving these new lace-y vintage-y headbands from Oh My Deer.

*above photos via Oh My Deer

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Well Hello 2010!  I’ve been waiting for you for a looooonnnggg time.  Luckily 2009 was pretty cool and we had some fun together…but you 2010…well I have a feeling you and I are going to be really great friends…maybe even BFFs.

And so it begins…the year of the wedding.  I remember how long away 2010 sounded back when we got engaged in 2008…but what do you know…time flew and BAM…here we are!!  Hooray!

So I may have taken a small break from doing anything productive for the wedding…ok so maybe it was more like a month.  Anyways…waking up News Years day I realized that we were about to hit the 5 months-to-go mark.  (holy bananas!)  So I decided I should probably blow the dust off that planning binder and get back at it!  Well much to my surprise that month I took off was a pretty important one in the land of planning check-lists…and now I suddenly feel behind!  EEK!  I guess I just kept telling myself I have TONS of TIME…what’s the rush?!  Happens to the best of us right?

I declared this week “Get-Back-On-The-Wedding-Planning-Bandwagon” week.

First item of business…get in bridal shape!  I already have a regular work-out schedule that consists mostly of running, so I decided to spice it up a bit by adding a little challenge that will help tone up my arms (hopefully).  Push-ups…100 of them.

I saw this challenge a while back on a wedding blog (go figure…my go-to source for all things awesome) and figured what the heck…I can do that!  So I am.  Here’s to sexy wedding dress arms ladies!

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photo by author

After 13 months of being engaged…our guests finally get a little glimpse into our upcoming wedding…our Save-The-Dates!  If feels so unbelievably good to have these out the door and (hopefully) hanging on the fridges of our family and friends.

Way back in the beginning stages of planning, I had high hopes of designing our own beautifully perfect STDs (sorry…it is just easier!).  Of course…that isn’t exactly how it all turned out.  One thing I knew for sure…after seeing several amazing STDs out in internet-ville…was that I wanted them to include a picture of Lance and I…preferably one of our e-pics.  So after we hired our photographer, and scheduled our ‘love-shoot’, I inquired about getting the rights to our images, so that i could use them to my heart’s desire.

While we will get all our wedding photos on disc to have and treasure forever as part of our package, our e-pics were a different story.  Sure we could get them…but for a price.  Bummer.  While I contemplated buying the rights to the images, Lance and I both agreed that in the end our wedding pictures will be the ones we look back on for years to come.  So having a disc full of our e-pics was not something we needed (or could justify fitting in the budget).

However…not all was lost!  Our amazing photographer also happens to dabble in design as well…so why not turn the reigns over to her??  Well that is exactly what we did!  I sent Khara an inspiration board I had made and explained the look and feel we were going for.

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Lance’s mother comes from Norwegian descent.  I remember the first time I went home with Lance for Christmas and was introduced to the wonder that is lutefisk.  Although I personally would not use the words ‘wonderful’ and ‘lutefisk’ in the same sentence, this seems to be a hot item amongst the men in the family (not Lance thankfully - I would have to sit at a table on the other side of the room… trust me this stuff is potent!).

So when Lance’s mom mentioned the idea of having a traditional Norwegian wedding cake as part of our cake table (we’re going with the ‘multiple-small-cakes-and-random-deserts’ idea) I was a bit scared as to what this might be.  Turns out it looks like a giant stack of doughnuts.  Yum!

Google-ing my way around the internet…this is what I found out.  The ‘Kransekake’, or wreath cake, is made from almonds, powdered sugar, and egg whites.   A little crisp on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside…apparently this thing taste pretty darn good!  It is traditionally decorated with Norwegian flags….however we will probably just do small flags of our wedding colors…similar to these.

{Morning by Foley via The Sweetest Occasion}

We may even put a cute topper on it.

{Elizabeth Messina via Soigne Productions}

It may not be the most beautiful cake ever, but I like the idea of including a bit of Lance’s ancestry in our wedding.  Lance’s aunt has already made these for some of his cousin’s weddings and has graciously offered to make ours as well…so we can pretty much check this item off the ‘To Do’ list!  Can’t argue with family help right?

What family traditions or customs do you plan on including in your wedding?

…that I didn’t even think twice about before.

Succulents in jars with burlap table runners.

Carrie Patterson via Style Me Pretty

…or just some potted ones.

Stephanie Williams Photography

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I never actually planned on having a wedding poster…it just kind of happened…here’s how it all went down.

Back toward the end of September I won a free poster size print from a blog giveaway!!!  (hooray for winning!!)  When I got the email with the info on how to redeem this free print…I noticed I only had ONE MONTH to come up with something!!  Well there goes my grand plan of waiting till after the wedding and having one of my favorite pictures printed.  I briefly toyed with the idea of dressing my two cats up in little outfits and taking their picture and having that printed*…but I quickly convinced myself that no…I should really use this for something WEDDING related!

That’s when I remembered all the lovely wedding posters I had seen on Etsy!

via ello there on Etsy

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It occurred to me today at the doctor’s office…that when you are engaged…you can easily have a conversation with just about anyone…and at any time.  Of course the subject of discussion is… the WEDDING!!  Why is it that all of a sudden I feel like the lady at the bank that helped us set up our joint account wants to have us over for her next dinner party??  And does the pharmacy tech really care about what flowers I’m going to have on the cake table??

It’s amazing how a shinny rock on one’s finger can suddenly make everyone want to know everything about you and your husband to be…where you went to school…how you met…where you are getting married and when…the list goes on and on.  Suddenly I find myself having 30min conversations about shoes and candles with people I used to just smile at and say ‘hello!’

Then when you go to wrap up the conversation…they end it with “oh you just HAVE to bring in pictures from the BIG DAY  next time you’re in!!!!”

source

Really….you really want to see my wedding album?  What so you think I’m just going to lug that thing around everywhere I go? (ok myabe I will)  …and then what…so I drive through the bank to cash a check and you want me to shove it in that drawer-esq thing to you??  Or the cashier at Target…do you really want me to hold up the line while you go through every page??

I’m guessing most people say this just to make me feel good…so for that 1 min as I walk away I can think to myself, “heck yes…my weding is gonna ROCK…that’s right…you WILL want to see my pictures because it will pretty much be the most awesomest of awesome weddings ever…”

Heck…if someone brought in a wedding album for me to look at everyday at work….I know I wouldn’t complain…would you?

Alright…we had the beautiful plum v-neck dresses from Nordstrom that didn’t make the cut… and then came the super cute purple and violet dresses from Amanda Archer that won my heart at first sight.

But then…then came Jcrew.

pic from Jcrew via Green Wedding Shoes

Tried and true, gorgeous and simple…BM dresses from Jcrew.  I remember when I first ran across the Spring 2009 line (yes way back in February 09) I fell in love…IN LOVE!… with the halter dress in the above image!  So stinkin’ cute no?!  I remember thinking 2 things… it is way too early to be looking at BM dresses…and oh wait…the price…yeah not so in love with that.  I realize Jcrew dresses are pretty darn reasonable but I know my ladies and I really didn’t want them to break the bank just to look fab at my wedding.  So…I just sorta “forgot” about this cute number.

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Before I continue the BM dress saga…I wanted to say thanks for all the comments on my last post!  I was truly overwhelmed by the response…I literally sat down with intentions of continuing the BM dress story…but instead that is what came out.  I guess it was just on my mind.  I appreciate hearing all your comments and I actually related to each one in some way or another!  So thanks for sharing your thoughts and stick around…we’ve got 8 more months together!

OK…so where were we…OH YES…I had just decided against the lovely plum dresses from Nordstrom and started the hunt for the perfect BM dresses…again.  That’s when fellow bride blogger Abbie emailed me the cutest dress on Etsy!

Behold…the Amanda Archer Pleated Collar Dress:

oh and what’s that I see…it comes in violet??

source

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