delicious paper

can we talk about my love of paper for a moment?

i truly adore everything about it. the way it feels. the way it smells.

i love writing on it.

i especially love a nice thick cotton paper.

that said it is no surprise that invites have been one of the toughest decisions i have had to make.

mr. lemon pie is surely a little weary of my [almost] daily 'do you like this one?' link and photos.

i've also decided that i am going to design and print my own invites which is really another whole post in itself.

did i mention that they just opened a BRAND NEW paper source 30 minutes from my house?!

a few invites that i am coveting at the moment:

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i heart the flourishes and colors. especially the craft paper matchbook. most of all i love the 'accept' and 'decline' stickers! [can you even believe that these are DIY?!]

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where do i start. the envelope liner? swoon. the textures? double swoon. the font?....can someone help me up off the floor please?

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omg. the photo corners. how can you not love this? extra points for the vintage book look. love. love. love. duh.

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simple, clean and scalloped. this has everything you need for a knock 'em dead invite suite. plus i have a thing for postcards.

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this is pretty similar to what i *think* we want. vintage feel. poster style. clean lines. simple but elegant font.

our invites will read 'summer cocktail attire' so we want our invites to have a relaxed yet classy feel.

am i asking too much?

what did you look for in your invites? did you have your heart set on a particular style or were you more go with the flow?

perfect flowers

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are these not the most perfect flowers ever?

ok ok you don't have to agree but friends...these make my heart pitter patter.

i think i have *finally* found my DIY flower inspiration.

what would be even more lovely is if some of these could be found in the gardens of friends and family.

where did you get your flower inspiration?

birdcages & bobs

since i did the pre-wedding chop quite a few peeps have asked me what i am going to do with my shorter-in-the-back-a-little-longer-in-the-front bob [that i love].





my response has always been ‘i am sure we will figure it out.’





then i saw this photo:

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and dropped dead because it is basically everything that i want in a hairstyle and a birdcage.

i thought i wanted a fascinator to go along along with the birdcage but now i am not so sure.

i think i like the simplicity of the just the birdcage.

what are your thoughts – fascinator or no fascinator?

so totally what i am looking for

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when i think of our wedding this is what almost immediately comes to mind.

our venue has the same high ceilings and massive amounts of windows.

is it next summer yet?

i know. i know.

a little ahead of myself right?

i am just over the moon excited to marry the love of my life.

oh! and did i tell you? we've decided on place cards/favors!

this whole wedding planning gig is everything + more than it is cracked up to be.

period.

invitations

so i had this fear that i would not be able to make my own invites. i mean i knew that with a lot of patience and some craftiness of mama lemonpie and i that we could totally get them done.

but i was still a little worried.

then today a co-worker brought in the invitations that she made for her daughters wedding and holy cow!

they are amazing.

and classy.

and beautiful.

so very very soon i am going to embark on this endeavor to be sure that i have enough time to fiddle.

what do you think diy invitations or not?

on doing it yourself

we have a teeny little thing called a wedding budget.

i know this means different things to different people but to us it means keeping the cost of this affair under $12,000.

i have decided that our smaller budget it actually a blessing in disguise.

why you ask?

well, instead of outsourcing to vendors we get to include those most important to us in planning and executing.

I really love that idea.

I love the idea that everyone will be working together and that we will get to spend a few extra moments that we may not have had with friends and family.

Our do it yourself list is a somewhat lengthy one:

Save the dates

Invitation suite

Calligraphy

Centerpieces

Escort cards

Favors

Guest book

Birdcage

Through all of this, the most important part of our wedding day is the connection we have with each other and the people who have supported us our entire lives.

We want our wedding day to not only be a celebration of the beginning of our lives together but also a thank you to all of those who have helped us reach this point in our lives.

What are your do it yourself projects? Are you planning on having your family and friends be a large part of your big day?

let's get rich and build our house on a mountain

mr. lemonpie and i – we are not living together before we get married.

we have discussed it to death over the past year – the pros the cons, how easy it would be, how much money we could save, how fun it would be, how it would make the married transition easier, how much more we’d get to see each other and on and on and on.

the other night after we had made appointments just to ‘see what was out there’ we had a light bulb moment.

we don’t want to shack up together…yet.

we have years and years of coming home to each other and saving for a house and on and on and on.

what about right now [and how hard it can be both living at home]?

right now we will enjoy the last year of looking forward to seeing each other after being apart for three days.

we will cherish those moments when mr. lemonpie drops me off on sunday night and we sit in the car [not wanting to leave each other] and talk about what a great weekend we had and how amazing it was to spend the whole day together.

i will still send little love notes via snail mail.

he will still send me flowers.

and we will squeeze our eyes shut tight and scream i miss you over the phone lines.

but most of all right now we will dream about the days when we don’t have to leave, or say i miss you and when we can wake up every morning next to our favorite person ever.

i know it doesn’t work for everyone but it works for us and for the first time well, ever, we are ok with it [and those who think we are nuts for waiting.]

did you wait to move in with your love? are you living with your love now? how does living together or not living together make your relationship happier?

inspired by:

pre wedding chop

i know there is a lot of talk about the famous ‘post wedding chop’ a.k.a pwc but what i have not come across yet is the ‘pre wedding chop.’

sound scary?

what got me thinking about this?

well, when mr. lemonpie and i got engaged i had visions of the lauren conrad side ponytail. i even brought my hairdresser a magazine picture of lauren’s hair and said ‘i want that’

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4 months later here i am at the hairdresser for the usual ‘cut and color’ when i say ‘i really want to cut it all off but i am afraid that by next summer it won’t be long enough.’

my hairdresser then tells me not to cut it because i am not ready.

so i told her to cut it because heck! do not tell me i am not ready! not to mention it is hair and it will grow back and it is going to look awesome next summer because it will be all new and freshly grown out and i will have the side ponytail of my dreams.

30 minutes later i am staring at the sweetest most loveliest blonde bob that i have ever had my entire life and i am completely and totally head over heels in love with it.

and i cannot bear for a second to grow it out because – i am not lying when i tell you this – it does whatever i want it to do. last weekend mr. lemonpie and i went on a 15 mile bike ride [yes, i even wore a helmet], drove with the windows down and went for a swim, and my hair still looked good!

so my dream of a luxurious side ponytail on my wedding day has been replaced with dreams of pin curls and rockabillys and pretty waves.

did anyone else take the plunge and chop off their hair before their wedding?

may december romance

ashton kutcher & demi moore.

michael douglas & catherine zeta jones.

harrison ford & calista flockhart.

...to name a few...

then there is my fiance(22) and i(28).

the finace i met while working for the same management consulting firm. [i was the assistant to the CFO and he was the finance intern]

the finace who when mama lemon pie saw a picture of asked 'who is that and why aren't you dating him?!'

i said: 'he's too young! sister lemon pie is closer in age than we are!'

mama lemon pie's response was: 'he is NOT too young. period.'

i never in a million years thought that i would end up marrying 'the intern.'

and yes, there are times when i say how old he is and how old i am that i get a little sheepish.

and there are times when we look at eachother and we realize that sometimes we do have to work through a little bit of a 'gap.'

but at the end of the day in know that i am so truly lucky and blessed to have found 'my person.' the one who despite our six year age difference totally and completely and utterly understands every working mechanism of who i am.

we are a bonafide may-december romance and we completely love every single minute of it.

venue love

pictures are worth a thousand words.

check. check. and check.

about the wedding?

we are getting there.

venue = check

dj = check

flowers = check

concept = check

DIY hat = check

...more to come when i get the photos off the camera-ra-ra.

xo

houston, we have a problem.

i just discovered the joys of ebay.

i know - it really did take me this long to bid on and win an item.

i started out looking for a typewriter....and now i am the proud owner of 100 vintage stamps.

yes. 100.

they are beautiful though.

love stamps and rose stamps and north american wildlife stamps and gorgeous blue jay stamps.

this weekend i decided that i was going to stop bidding on vintage stamps because this was getting out of control. and then this morning i won two more auctions that i really didn't think i was going to win. and that brought my total to 100.

except since they are all vintage stamps (20, 32 & 22 cent) i now have to bid on some more to ehem, complete my collection right?

we've only just begun

this is our very first picture together. ever.
we carpooled to vermont [for a company outing] and after months of flirting, weeks of being good friends and 3 days of coffee runs and company meetings decided that it was inevitable - we had to be together. we knew there were so many amazing places on the way home that we decided to stop and get a disposable camera. all morning we took photos, talked about how amazing miles and miles of trees are, discussed our love of coffee and held hands the whole time. [isn't he handsome]

this is how we rang in new years with two of our favorite people.
they are our very 'best couple.' [isn't she so cute?!]

and this is our first vacation together.where we got ENGAGED.

sure enough the love of my life proposed to me right in front of cinderella's castle. during this show:

he asked me if i knew what his wish was.

i had no idea.

so i asked.

and he told me that his wish is that i would marry him.

my answer: yes. yes. yes. yesyesyesyes.

because this man really does make all my wishes come true.