Now I know my wedding is not until August but believe me it is right around the corner! Seven months will go by all to quickly so I am starting my hair preparation now. I know for my hair I want it to be blond with a little brown weaved through it just so that it is not platinum. I also know that I ever since my fiancé proposed I have wanted it to be long for the wedding. I have been growing it out since last April and it is longer and in better condition then I have ever seen it in. When I look online at all the different wedding hairstyles I have gathered different ideas for how it will be on my wedding day. I have not decided on the perfect hair due yet but I have a pretty good idea of how it will look.

I want it all down with long barrel curls, I might have a little of it pulled up in the front but I have not decided for sure. Currently I am going through the decision on bangs or no bangs. I started wearing bangs about 6 months ago and I have enjoyed them. Tonight I am going to get my hair done and I am going to try the side swept bang to see if I like that more then blunt bangs. By next time I get my hair done again which will be 2 months I have to decide if I want to grow them out or keep them for the wedding.

I will keep you all posted…Until next time brides ☺

I also finally chose our save the date magnets. They again are based around the same theme.  They are a black and white photo of my fiancé and I all dressed up on the cruise the night he proposed to me.  The picture was taken after he officially purposed so it the perfect match for an engagement photo.

As for the invitations how do you even decide? I am having a hard time choosing my invitations! I feel like the invitations set the mood for the wedding. Once we decide on the invitations we will be choosing all of the place settings, menu cards and thank you cards all around the same theme. For us I think the best way to go is a formal invitation. We are having a summer evening wedding but we still would like people to think of it as a black tie affair.

I will keep you posted on my progress! To all the other brides out there good luck!

The best part about the event is the fashion show. They have all different shapes and sizes of girls modeling all of the latest and greatest wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses and tuxedos. All of the models walk down the catwalk to all different types of music and props. It is really neat to see all of the girls in the dresses and gives all the brides lots of good ideas for when they go to look at dresses. In the show there is different scenes and each scene has its own theme and vendors.

The other thing that I love about the Bridal Show is all of the prizes you can sign up to win as a new bride and all of the free goodies you get to take away from the show. At each booth you either get a business card, a bridal magazine or some form of information about each vendor. This is great information to have when you are planning a wedding!

If you are engaged to get married I reccomend you check out a Bridal Show near you!

For our wedding this includes looking at different save the date options and invitation options. For the save the date decision my fiancé and I both love the idea of save the date magnets. The reason we like the magnets is because we love the idea of our wedding reminder being on our friends refrigerators. It is brilliant and it will help all of our close friends and family to save the date. We both like the idea of having our picture on the magnet. There is something extra special about our faces being on their refrigerator as a reminder.

For our invitations again we like the idea of having our picture either on the invitation or at least inside of the invitation. We have not picked out the design of our invitations yet but we like the idea of them being the same colors as our wedding colors. We are still on the look out for the perfect invitations but when we find them we will both know.

It feels good to almost be done with all of the major vendors. My advice to any bride is start planning right away and the sooner the better! If you start planning as soon as you can you too can have all of your first picks. I cannot imagine running around last minute trying to book and organize all of the vendor’s last minute.

If you are less then 1 year away and do not have all of the major details taken care of, take my advice and start booking them right away. I am amazed to see how fast all of the vendors book up! I am moving into more of the smaller wedding details and I will keep you all posted of how that goes…until next time brides to be….

He was the first thing that came to both of our minds when we thought of having the best of the best. My sister and husband raved about him and the way he conducted the whole event. Well my fiancé and I went to a wedding last weekend and he was the DJ at that wedding as well! Again we were overly impressed by his work! When we saw him at the wedding we asked him for his business card and talked about setting a meeting that very next week.

We had our meeting with him last night and my fiancé and I were both blown away by all he has to offer! His name is Shawn and he works for Event Team Entertainment. He and his company take the word DJ to a whole other level! If you are looking for the best in the business you will not be disappointed! His services are anything but standard with packages ranging from picture backdrops, customized songs, game show options, even a new feature called dancing in the clouds! All this and more to make your day anything but ordinary!

I am from the Portland area so I have been looking at locations that are close to Portland. My first choice was “The Aerie at Eagle Landing” it was a beautiful venue and it pretty much had everything I was looking for. The only part of the venue I was not impressed with was I felt it was the entire area of where the wedding and reception would have been held was a little small. They venue is set up so that the wedding is held outside and then the reception is outside about 20 feet away from where you have the ceremony and then the reception also has a small inside area. The layout is like a house with a garage style opening.

Like it said it was my first choice because of how immaculate everything was kept on the property. What they forget to mention is that they are going to nickel and dime you all the way down the individual linens and place settings you will be using! They give you a $35-$50 per person figure for the catering but what they forget to mention is with those figures the only thing included is the food! Not the linens, or place settings, or even the staff! They charge you for the individual staff members! If that is not bad enough they also charge you for an extra $600 if you happen to choose a date that is considered “popular” for brides! If you ask them about this charge they will try to make up a reason for this additional fee but that is the true reason for them charging it.

Long story short I did end up finding the perfect venue and they do not nickel and dime you for every last thing! Check back in a few days and I will fill you in!

For example I went to a venue called “The Water Oasis” and I was very disappointed! First of all we had an appointment at 9am and when we got there the guy who was supposed to show us the property was not even there. Instead another one of the owners was there and he does not usually do tours. Now mind you we drove 60 minutes to get to this location and we had to get up early because we looked at one other place before going to this appointment.

It turns out the guy we made the appointment with was not going to be able to make it! If that was not bad enough, our new tour guide could not answer any of our questions! On top of that all of the beautiful ponds and fountains they have on there website were under construction and were not even running when we got there! Can you believe that they forgot to mention that before we drove out there?

Well it gets even worse the grass was not kept up, the bark dust was very old and by the time we saw that the ceremony area that only fits 75 people we were already disgusted by the property! I have to say though the worse thing of all of this experience was when you find out they do not have bathrooms outside and that they bring in Honey Pots!

Well you can be the judge of this one folks but I would say by the looks of things I would wonder if they are even a legit business! There is one crossed off the list!

Stay tuned I will be doing more reviews….

Well I am at that point where I need to act soon because I am a little bit more then a year out and venues can go quick. When thinking about all of the main components you have to look at for a decision like this there are three main things that can make or break your choice…

The first thing to consider is how many people you would like at your ceremony. If you are going to have a larger wedding then you are going to have to choose a venue that accommodates that amount of people. If you are going to have a smaller wedding then your options are completely different from a larger wedding and you have to again find a place that is appropriate for the amount of people you are going to accommodate.

After you figure out how many people you would like to have, you have to keep in mind the ever-famous budget! Now this is when you start looking at the $$$ and you start doing a really specific head count. Each person has a per person cost and you have to make sure that the amount you are coming up with is the amount you want to pay out of your pocket.

Once you have a solid number of how many guests you would like and how much money you can afford the last component is finding a venue that makes you happy and meets all of your needs. My fiancé and I would like an outside wedding and reception we currently have two places we are looking at but I am going to go out again this weekend to have a couple more places to compare to. The rule about finding the perfect venue is you can never do too much research to find the perfect match! Wish me luck…