Wedding Pictures: Details

They're finally here and I'm so excited to be able to share some pictures from our wedding day!

All of these amazing photos were taken by Joni Llyod Photography.

Here are some detail shots!

Married.

08-18-2012

The Happiest Day of My Life.

I'll be back to blogging soon.

oh heyyyyy

I had a (long) dress fitting today!

It fits like a glove but the bustle is giving us issues so I need to go back and figure that out.

Tomorrow...at 3:30 p.m....will be 14 days exactly until we start our ceremony.

I'm furiously finishing last minute decorations, day-of schedules, and all those details that need to be nailed down.  I've had a headache for the last 3 days straight which I'm pretty sure is due to the insane amount of emotions that are swirling around in my body.  

Any of my married blogger ladies want to give me some last minute bridal advice??

I'd appreciate it!

I can't wait to share our pictures and details with you!

A letter...

Dear blog readers/followers/family/friends,

I really am "thirsty" for relaxation.  That honeymoon idea is sounding pretty amazing right about now.

I think the time has come where I need to take a break from blogging until after the wedding.  We're 29 days out y'all and I'm freaking out.  There's just a handful of things left to get done and my family and I are about to go on vacation and I don't want to feel like writing here is just another thing on my long list of to-dos.  Just because I say I need to take a break doesn't mean I won't pop in occasionally and write something, it just won't be on my mind every day.

I hope everyone of you has an amazing last few weeks of summer.  I can't wait to come back and be able to share pictures and stories from our wedding with you.

Love,

amanda

LDR

Photo by Jennifer Ciani

*Rant*

Tonight will hopefully be the last time (for awhile) that I'm sitting on my bed crying about the distance between me and the man I love.  That photograph above made my heart wrench a little bit tonight.  Far too many times in the past five years I've done that very same thing.  Walked away crying and repeated to myself, "Don't turn around. Just keep walking. Don't turn around. Just keep walking," over and over again.  Way too many couples take for granted the time that they get to spend together.  It is precious and it is something that you should be thankful for
every. single. day.

It is commonly said that the groom doesn't have a say or won't want to have a say in the planning of his wedding.  This, my friends, is complete bullshit. At least where I'm concerned.  I need his input and I really would like his help right about now.  Planning a wedding while you are still in a long distance relationship is hard.  In fact, I think I'm finding it harder to deal with then I did a deployment.  Not a day has gone by over this planning time that I haven't had something I need to ask him or want his opinion on.  This will be OUR day and what our guests see is going to be the product of a lot of text messages and phone calls back and forth in regards to what our wedding should be like.

All of that being said, I cannot wait for my long distance relationship to be over.  We have a TON of catching up to do and the rest of our lives to spend doing just that.  I have a feeling we're going to be "dating" each other for many, many years to come and I'm completely happy with that.

*This concludes the rant portion of tonight*

Let's

Oh hey July! How does it feel to have one week over and done with?

I was a little mind blown when I woke up today and realized how fast this week has gone by...

and how fast the rest of the month is going to go!  

Next weekend is our color run in San Francisco. My jet-setting sisters will be in Arizona, Mexico, and Nashville over the course of two weeks, while yours truly will be here finishing up wedding details.  Then our family and our friends are going to be camping at our favorite lake for a week and when we come home we have TWO weeks until the wedding.

I'm slightly panicking about the amount of things we still have left to do.  I know that I need to start delegating and getting more people on board, but my control freak self just wants to make sure everything is done myself.

Suffice it to say, this summer is shaping up to be a whirlwind one, but I think it's probably going to be one of the most memorable yet.

We're hittin some big numbers over here

Today was a day of big and small, but big numbers around these parts.

My dad turned the big 50 today! 

We celebrated by throwing him a surprise dinner with 20 of our closest friend. It's always a great time when we get together.

Today is also the 2 month mark in the wedding countdown! 

Two months?? We've got this. It's going to go by so fast and I can't wait!

Hope everyone had a good Monday!

Pre-wedding bucket list

Before I leave California, for maybe the rest of my life, I decided there were some things I needed to do.
Enter the "Pre-Wedding Bucket List!"

I added a few more after I took the picture. 

Here they are:

1.  Bonfire(s) at Carmel Beach

2.  Wine Tasting: Hollister/Pessagno

3.  Camping at Pinecrest

4.  Sacramento trip

5.  Santa Cruz Boardwalk trip

6.  Day at Morgan Hill Swim Center

7.  Sleepover with Corinne Elizabeth

8.  Wreck the dress shoot with Candace.

9.  Cooking lesson with Blair 

10.  Family breakfast out on a Saturday

11.  Waterski trip

I might think of a few other things in the coming days.

Better get going on these! 2 more months!

yes we are..

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We are going to be the couple who has corn hole at their wedding.

We are also going to be the couple that has a fire pit and s'mores.

And we'll be drinking out of these (handmade by my amazing aunt).

Redneck? Maybe.

Country? Definitely.

103 days!

monday

 Maybe Monday

Maybe I couldn't push myself to run more than a mile today.

Maybe my mom and I made another recipe from the Pioneer Woman's blog.

Maybe I feel really weird every time I go into Home Depot by myself.

Maybe I don't normally like surprises, but I'm excited for my surprise bridal shower my sister is planning.

Maybe I really started stressing about money and things we have to do in the next 110 days.

Maybe babysitting for 18 kids makes me feel really confident about my future-mothering skills.

Maybe I've been more bitter about moving home than I thought.

Maybe I really, really miss my future husband...like really, really.

popular

So as I was reviewing our guest list with my mom tonight this song went through my head.

Not that I think we're super popular...but holy cow, we really do know a lot of people.

On another note, it's making me really excited that in just a few weeks all of those people will know our date and details and will hopefully be just as excited for that day as I am! 

My house is in full wedding planning  mode. I love it when my dad comes home and says stuff like, I figured out how I'm going to make "this" and build "that," and my mom is constantly calling me into the other room to talk about something wedding related or show me something on Pinterest.

So fun!

Hope everyone had a terrific start to their week!

Can I gush for a sec?

So ever since we finalized our venue I have been nothing short of ecstatic about our wedding.

That's probably how it should be all the time right? My bad.  For awhile I was really seriously just wanting it over with, but that attitude is out the window.  I've got my place, talking to a photographer, giving friends tasks, and I added a bridesmaid, who my day wouldn't be the same without.

So...so excited!

Then end!

Venue...check!

I know I said it was the perfect place yesterday, but I just wanted to say that it is now THE place.

We're getting married here on August 18th.  We decided to move the date up a month, because we're impatient and it works and will be safe for military purposes.

Now I'm off to find a photographer (suggestions California?) and get everything else lined up.

Happy Tuesday!

In which I find the perfect place.

I've been so back and forth about our wedding venue.  They've fallen through, been way too expensive, or not been available on our date.  Well, today I hope that came to an end.  I fell in love with San Lorenzo Park and because it's a county park, it is ridiculously affordable.  There are so many rustic barns, tractors, and buildings scattered everywhere for picture opportunities.  The hall for the reception is perfect in every single way.

I'm so excited and relieved.  I'm reserving it tomorrow for whatever date is available between July and September.

Here are a couple pictures I snapped.

How was everyone's Easter? Ours was very relaxing and probably the most quiet holiday we've had around here in a long time. 

Easter nails and stripes.


Have a good night lovelies!

Venue update

This picture doesn't look like much, but I really didn't have any others to really go off of.

The venue is pretty awesome.  It has a ton of rustic-glam potential and is almost exactly what I had envisioned.

The family that owns the property had built this event barn to hold weddings in, but they've only had one family one so far so it's practically brand new.

We're still waiting to hear back from the family, so I'm still crossing my fingers that this will work out! 

Did everyone have a good Tuesday?  I can't believe that this week is going by so fast, but I'm very glad that it is.  See you tomorrow for Wednesday Wishes.


I had forgotten that I wanted to share this video with you!
Who knew Nikki Reed could sing?

Here's hoping

We have just 187 days left until our wedding.  Um? Since when did that number shrink that much?

Last time I checked we had over 200 days to go.

Currently, we're penciled in at a wedding venue that I'm not super thrilled about, but at the same time it's close to my heart and I know that with all the brainpower my group of wonderful people have, we can make it into something spectacular.  

However, last night my dad got a call from one of his good friends at work who said that he found a place for us on a ranch that has a barn and a stage and is...FREE.  Yes, free!!  All we would really need to do is rent tables and chairs.  Are you kidding me?! I've been crossing my fingers all day that this place works out.  My dad went out there already with a camera and took pictures and I'll be getting the full report when he gets home tonight from work.

Stay tuned and maybe cross your fingers for me!

The power of Pinterest

I first heard about Pinterest almost a year ago from my roommate Hannah.

Back then, believe it or not, you could scroll from page to page and hardly ever see the same image pinned twice and people weren't pinning their random, personal pictures either.  Oh and you also got a personal email once a week from the team of Pinterest telling you how many times you had been re-pinned and the new followers you gained. It was way too much fun and kept me distracted for hours.  It still does the same today, it just looks almost like a different site.

Today Pinterest proved its worth to me.

I found the dress my bridesmaids are going to wear and ordered them within 10 minutes of seeing it.

They're perfect and $40 dollars to boot!

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I can't tell you how thrilled I am that I found this pin.

Night lovelies!

If I could I would

Yesterday, I talked about how finding a venue was starting to feel like it's pretty much impossible.

I don't know if any of you are big "Parenthood" fans, but tonight two of the main characters finally got married.

They pulled off one of the sweetest backyard weddings in a week...in fictional, TV land of course.

Now, we know far too many people to ever be able to pull this off (I think our family alone was a little less than 100), but I absolutely love the idea of a small, intimate, and fun backyard wedding.

My absolute favorite wedding inspiration blog is Green Wedding Shoes and tonight I spent some time browsing through their "backyard wedding gallery," wistfully thinking that I wish I could pull this off.

 All photos from Green Wedding Shoes

Rebel without a cause and feeling better

On Friday I wrote a little note to myself telling me that I needed to get my $#&% together and get out of my funk.  I don't know if it was just having a pretty good weekend or what, but I felt a lot better today.  

There's a lot of rough stuff that's been happening to put a damper on my mood over the last month.

The biggest one is that my wedding venues keep falling through.  Can you yell say B-U-M-M-E-R???

We keep plugging on and moving to the next best thing.  If anyone has any ideas for a wedding venue in Central California, pass them my way pretty please *bats eyelashes*!

This was THE one that got away...*sigh* makes my stomach hurt.

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But despite all that, I'm feeling better and I'm ready for this last week of February and March to start!

March is going to be a good month, I can just feel it.


And now a picture of James Dean...The Rebel Without a Cause.
 Almost-husband and I had a funny exchange about this movie title and it made my night.
Enjoy.

I think if I could do something like this without the back lash, I would..

Tom + Jenn. Married. from Jeff Manion on Vimeo.