Wedding Night

Since this was our mini-wedding, we had a mini-moon. We spent our wedding night at The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica. It's an awesome 1930's art deco lovely right on Ocean Blvd. After our post wedding nap, we walked around the promenade and found some dinner, but we ended up choosing not the right place and as we weren't floored by it's awesomeness no need to mention it. But then we walked to whole foods to get some bubbly and some berries (we had leftover cake in the room). We got back to our room to find the bed turned down, chocolates on the nightstand and ice in the bucket. Perfect!

In the morning we went for a run on the beach, along the waterline. It was gorgeous! After that we met up with some family for breakfast at swingers. Yum.

Menswear

We took advantage of the Men's Wearhouse sale and got all the guys outfitted.

Mr. Moonbeam's suit had gone on sale since he first tried it on, which was awesome. He also picked up a shirt with french cuffs so that he can incorporate his grandfather's cufflinks and we got him a solid colored ltie. He's so excited to have a subtle pinstripe, flat front pants and a slim modern fit. I'm excited that the gray has a bit of a warm undertone to match all of our fall colors. And his light gray will stand out against his groomsmen. They'll be outfitted in this charcoal gray number that was part of the buy 1 get 1 free deal. And since there were 5 groomsmen and you had to buy an even number of suits, Mr. Moonbeam got an extra (black pinstripe). Now I've just got to find some suitable shirts and ties for the groomsmen to pick up and discuss the shoes. Brown or burgundy, we'll see.

Married (legally)

We had our civil ceremony mini-wedding this past Saturday and it was quite enjoyable. We were at Point Dume in Malibu, this past weekend had some huge waves and it was a bit overcast. Fog doesn't look as good in pictures, but it would have been sweltering in the sun.

Then we headed to Duke's Malibu for some yummy lunch followed by some fantastic bundt cakes made by my Uncle Jim. Chocolate and lemon poppy seed.

It was just the casual, low-key day that we wanted. We get the professional pictures in about 2 weeks, yeah!

Now for the BIG day in November. The guest list will be approximately 10 times the size of Saturday's. Oh boy!

Getting Close

Oh man! The family was in town the week before my July wedding and we did some sightseeing along with some wedding stuff. We scoped out fabric stores for wedding dress and flower girl fabrics and played around with flower making techniques.

These are organza with singed edges via this tutorial. I don't know if I had the wrong fabric content or just did it wrong, but they just burned at the edges, didn't curl up and left a bit of ash. So, I washed the ash off and dried them inside of small egg cups to shape them and that ended up working out.

On the tourist side of things, we did the San Diego Zoo yesterday, very cool place and they seem to have a private party area, if you're really into animals . We also did the beach and I've been showing the fam some of our favorite restaurants. Burgers at The Counter, hot dogs at Pink's, tacos at El Cholo. Oh, and a nice homecooked meal from my Uncle Jim. Homemade lasagna finished off by lemon cupcakes.

I called up Duke's just to check on my reservation and asked about their cake-cutting fee. They don't have one, so I can just bring in a cake and add a little something nice to the wedding, for very little $$$. Another thing I've looked into is a beach wheelchair for the grandparents. It's hard to walk on the sand and if I can make it so they don't have to, even better. You get them from the lifeguard stands at the major beaches, their first-come first-serve and you just leave a credit card for them to hold onto.

The Church

I'm getting married at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in LaCoste, Texas. My pictures don't do it justice. It's got some great gold accents on the walls of the apse. The pews are a pretty dark wood and there's some tiffany blue accents around the church, along with some nice stained glass. And a wedding can do a pretty good job filling it, I've never liked the big empty churches at weddings.

My Wedding Dress Lace

This is the lace my Mom will be using to make my wedding dress. It's the lace from my Grandmother's wedding dress.

And, oh yeah, my Mom wore it too.

It might be my favorite part of the wedding. Maybe I can talk Mr. Moonbeam into recreating my Dad's tux look too! Gotta love brown velvet detailing.

November Rehearsal Dinner Dress

Dress

The one in the picture is too big, so I ordered a smaller size, unfortunately even that size was too big on top and since that doesn't work with a strapless dress it had to be returned. I did love the architectural pleating and the warm gray color, but if it doesn't fit and it's over $200 it goes back to the store.

After taking it back, I did a little more shopping and found this other Calvin Klein number and bought it at Nordstrom's big anniversary sale for $80. I really love it in general, but when I looked at the photo later, I looked pregnant, and I might have 'wobbly bits' but they're generally not in the belly area.

I was thinking some great yellow heels with it. I just like yellow and purple, others might say it clashes, I can only reply that I was born in the 80's. So this might become a shower dress, but I've already worn it twice (with yellow heels) since I bought it, therefore it's still a good dress.

In short, the search continues.

Invite First Draft

So, it's the first idea, may or may not go with it. Font is dekthusian. The inspiration is from a Charles Rennie MacKintosh stained glass window. Source. Charles was one of the architects that stuck out in one of my architecture history classes. Can look similar at times to Frank Lloyd Wright's prairie style details, but I think Rennie's had a little more whimsy.

My Ring!

We ordered my wedding ring today, I won't be wearing it until after the November wedding, but I'll be getting it in about a month. I know it will be so hard to not wear it until November, but the seller, suelane, was kind enough to let us know that prices would be going up soon (we had convo-ed her about it already), so we bought it a bit early. I want it now.

Headband

I saw this tutorial today, and thought I'd give it a shot.




It took me an hour to make. I think it would make a great addition to a casual bridal look.

Wedding Dress Inspiration

I love this one from this wedding. Since I will be using grandma's old lace, it seems like it's got the right vibe.

But I do like my back, and was kind of hoping to show it off, so we'll have to hybridize it with this dress.

Or this.

Fabric Flower Tests

I've been testing my fabric flower making skills and I'm starting to like some of the results.

Frayed fabric rosettes tutorial.

Yarn pom-pom flowers tutorial.

The felt flowers are just petal shapes sewn together and attached with a button.

The lace flower is just lace that's been snipped around the petal shapes and sewn together.

I found that mixing the rosettes and pom-poms made the sturdiest flower when placed on floral wire, but I'll be testing different ways to attach the flowers to their stems. No one likes a droopy flower.

Texas Bridesmaid's Dresses

Dress

I was in Seattle last week and did a lot of shopping with my bridesmaid that lives up there. We and a couple of friends found these great dresses. I love the color for fall, and they're stretch satin with some well-placed ruching. All in all, figure flattering for my crazy range of bridesmaids. They also had regular and petites, helpful if your MOH is 5'10" and the smallest bridesmaid is 4'8". I also tried on my first wedding dresses, just to start looking at shapes. It was very exciting, but will not be nearly as exciting as the first time I get to try on the dress my mother will be making for me.