have the cake of your dreams, and eat it too.

Since I work at a catering company, I get the amazing privilege to taste wedding cakes all the time. After one summer, I knew exactly who had the best cakes, which meant, when I got engaged, I knew exactly where I would get my cake. =]

Ryke's Bakery in Muskegon, Michigan

http://www.rykes.com/rykes_weddingcakes.php

When I called to schedule an appointment, the owner informed me that there was a date last August, that she had to turn away over 25 brides because she already had all the cakes she could make. Boy, was I glad I called 11 months early. Carmen and I went the appointment and were blown away at the amount of photos she had for us to look at. I already had a good idea of what I wanted, something simple. I ordered a 4 tiered ivory round cake covered with ivory dots and a strip of gray ribbon around the bottom of each tier. The bottom tier is white cake with raspberry filling, the next smallest tier is chocolate cake with raspberry filling, the next smallest tier is chocolate cake with chocolate filling and the smallest tier is chocolate cake with white bavarian filling. 

Here is an example of something similar to what I ordered.

Just imagine it with gray ribbon instead of green.

Also, I decided on a monogramed cake topper. I ordered this from www.weddingaccessories.net because I found them there for $8.90 which was much cheaper than anywhere else.

Other Cake Topper Ideas

 Funny Cake Toppers

Love Birds Cake Toppers

Custom Made Look Alike Cake Toppers

Mickey Mouse Cake Toppers

Flower Cake Toppers

Metal Cake Toppers

celebrity engagement rings.

Kate Middleton

Britain's next princess

The ring was formerly Princess Diana's engagement ring 

Sapphire surrounded by 14 diamonds

Beyonce

18 carat flawless diamond

Valued at over $5 Million!

Hilary Duff

14-carat diamond engagement ring  

Costing $1 Million!

Jessica Simpson 

A central ruby flanked by two diamonds

Tabloids are questioning if she bought her own engagement ring

Carrie Underwood

8 carat yellow diamond

Worth a reported $800,000

shoes.

Shoe Ideas.

I am a big fan of going the non-traditional route on wedding shoe wear. Here are just a few ideas.

TOMS

www.toms.com/wedding

If you don't know what TOMS is all about, they're slogan is "One for One." For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. Wearing their shoes is a nice way to show your guest that you care, and make your special day about more than just you. The pairs of shoes range from $34 to $54 depending on the style you choose. Another great thing is that the shoes can also be your attendant gifts!

CONVERSE

www.converse.com

I think you have to be a certain kind of person for Converse to work in your wedding. But if you do have a style that matches the style of Converse, I think they are SO cute. They don't have a wedding section on their website, but they have tons of choices on their website. You're sure to find something you like. Converse shoes run anywhere between $40 and $65 and can also double as your attendant gifts.

My bridesmaids and I are more heels type of girls so although we love the TOMS idea, we will be wearing our heels! 

I will be wearing blue heels. Here is the dream pair!

Manolo Blahnick Something Blue Satin Pumps

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod64820067&parentId=cat17300738&masterId=cat17200748&index=0&cmCat=cat000000cat000141cat000143cat12110741cat17200748cat17300738

$945 at Neiman Marcus 

Not practical at all, but I have found some pretty good knock offs on Ebay. =] So I might have to go that route. If not, I will find different blue pumps. These babies were featured in Sex & the City the movie, which is my all time biggest obsession. ha.

The bridesmaids will be wearing silver shoes with their navy blue dresses. Each will be wearing different shoes, and they will be choosing themselves. 

First trip dress shopping!

Of course the first place we went was David's Bridal [www.davidsbridal.com]. I brought my best friend and maid of honor, Carmen, and my mom to come help me decide.

Since this was my first trip shopping, I didn't really know what to expect. I had looked at their online inventory a little to get a feel for their prices and they matched up pretty well with my budget [$500-600]. I had also been looking through my wedding magazines and getting ideas on what styles I liked and didn't like. 

When we got there, I had to fill out some paperwork, which seemed to be their way of proving I was actually engaged. ha. I guess they get a lot of girls that come in just to try on dresses and waste their time. Next I was assigned a helper. She then asked me what I was thinking I wanted generally and she got me a bra/corset and a poofy skirt and shoes. This was nice, I thought. I had come prepared with my own bra and shoes but they were in no way the correct ones. So I used theirs. 

She brought me out dresses and I tried them on and was loving it. My helper did a great job picking dresses that I liked but after a while, I pulled out their wedding gown catalog and picked 3 more dresses that I wanted to try.

Just to for-warn you brides to be out there, I am a size 2 in jeans, but DEFINITELY was not a 2 in dresses! I ended up trying on size 6 and 8, depending on the dress, but my helper said that was due to the size of my bust. [36C] So don't get discouraged by the larger sizes! 

I think that it's true what a lot of women say, it doesn't truely hit you that you are really getting married until you put a dress on. I loved it. My mom starting crying the second she saw me in the first dress. =]

Here are just a few pictures of the dresses I tried on.

Dress #1

This dress was the first one I tried on. Not quite my style. I don't like the big poofy skirt. But the top is nice. 

 Dress #2

Mikado Gown with Ruffle Back Style T9938

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Mikado-Silk-Gown-with-Ruffle-Back-T9938_Bridal-Gowns-Shop-By-Silhouette-Mermaid-Trumpet

 This gown below was really nice. I was surprised on how much I actually liked it. I always say, No beads, No bling and No lace. Simple is key. But I tried it on anyways. This dress had lots of beading all around the top, but I felt like it was done in a nice way. Not to mention the back of this dress is gorgeous. Didn't fit quite right, but you get the idea.

Dress #3

This dress also had some beading and was nice. I didn't quite like it as much as dress #2, but it was still a nice dress.

Hip detail.

Dress #4

All Over Draped Taffeta Trumpet with Button Back Style P9345

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Allover-draped-taffeta-trumpet-with-button-back.-P9345_Bridal-Gowns-Features-All-Gowns

The below dress was my favorite gown. It is trumpet shape. I loved everything about it except the top. If you look at the third picture you will see what I mean. It is pointed on each side of the top. I would either get it altered into a strait across top or into a sweatheart top. I especially LOVE the buttons down the back of the dress. [they aren't functional, there is a zipper]

We also picked out a bridesmaid dress while we were there. Here is a photo of Carmen wearing it. This one is purple, but we would order it in navy blue. It even has pockets!

Short Charmeuse Dress with Ruched Waist and Pockets Style 83707

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Short-Charmeuse-Dress-with-Ruched-Waist-and-Pockets-83707_Bridal-Party-Features-Most-Popular-Bridesmaids

Favors - Keep Your Drink Cold

Favors have been one thing that I can't get enough of. I keep finding more and more ideas that I love! I am REALLY into anything I can personalize. This will be sort of an ongoing series of posts all about Favors! 

Personalized Can Koozies/Coolies

I searched around for these in many many places. We knew for sure this is what we wanted to do. Most of the companies that I found were charging $2 to $3 per koozie but I put in some hard research and found some for SUCH a great price!

www.totallykoozies.com

This price includes two sides imprinted in a single color. 

Qty:	100	200	300	500	1,000	2,500	5,000	10,000	25,000	50,000
Price:	0.99 (Each)	0.59 (Each)	0.55 (Each)	0.49 (Each)	0.47 (Each)	0.45 (Each)	0.39 (Each)	0.35 (Each)	0.32 (Each)	0.29 (Each)

 Front                                                  Back

Photo Credit- www.customink.com

We will be ordering the above design from Totally Koozies.com for 59 cents each! Wowza!

Since we are doing an outdoor wedding in the heat of August, we will be filling these koozies with personalized bottles of water.

You can order personalized water bottles, you can order personalized labels, or you can make DIY personalized water bottles. Just depends on how much you are willing to spend.

We are planning to make the water bottles ourselves. I am planning on designing them on Microsoft Word or something similar, and then printing them on regular copy paper. If you are doing a lot, I suggest getting them printed at Fedex Office/Kinkos or another printing store. Then either laminate each page, or for a more cost friendly solution, cover each label with a strip of clear packing tape. Then cut them out. We are going to buy bulk packs of bottled water from Sams Club and remove their labels and wrap our new labels around the bottles and secure with hot glue. 

This will definitely take some time, but cutting corners where you can is always worth it! Plus, projects like this are perfect places to use your bridesmaids!

Photo Credit - www.bottleyourbrand.com

Save the date!

I knew that I always wanted the "photo-strip" type of save the dates. My bridesmaid, Whitney, is a great photographer so she took the photos for us, and made the signs! She is also planning on taking our engagement photos as well.

Here is what we designed...

We also decided to make them magnets which is fun because then guests can just stick them on their refrigerators and they won't get lost! We got them from www.freshimpressions.us. They were VERY helpful and I think they were fairly reasonable as well. We ordered 100 magnets and 100 envelopes and paid $149 plus shipping which was around $9. When we recieved the order, there were 40 extra magnets! We're not sure if they do this for all orders or if there was a mistake on their end, but none the less, we were happy. All of our friends loved the save the dates!

I also went to Office Max and bought some printable address labels and used a templet that was already in my Microsoft Word to type up all of the guests addresses and our return address. This made the save the dates look more expensive and really didn't cost much at all! Kevan was even impressed.

And don't forget to go to the post office and get wedding related stamps. They cost the same as normal stamps and add another extra something. Here are the ones I chose for the save the dates!

Attendants.

I have a best friend and so does Kevan so choosing my maid of honor and his best man was the easiest decision yet! [besides the yes of course!] Here they are...

Carmen

Sean

Another one of my best friends, Whitney, will also be a bridesmaid. 

You should have saw her face when she found out!! Priceless to say the least. 

Bruce, another one of Kevan's good friends will also be a groomsmen.

The last two attendants are my brother, Jeff, and Kevan's sister, Jessica.

^ excuse the halloween costumes. ha. ^

Setting the date/Choosing a venue

So, naturally the first thing that I wanted to do was pick a date! Except, it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I found out that I had to chose a venue before I choose the date in order to make sure the date was available. The venue that I first fell in love with was the Blue Dress Barn in St. Joe. I love idea of a reception in a nicely restored barn. Here are some pictures of the place...

www.bluedressbarn.com

I had my heart set on this venue until I learned that they had NO Saturdays left for next summer. This was the only barn close enough to our hometown to work for us. So no barn for us.

So on to plan B. 

After that set back, we had 2 new choices. The local brewery, Saugatuck Brewing Company, or the golf course, Ravines Golf Club. The spaces are comparable, but the Ravines is definitely nicer. We were just afraid of the price tag. I got the price information from both venues and turns out, Ravines room rental fee was a bit more than the brewery, but the food was less! So, we decided on the Ravines. I will get some pictures of the space as soon as possible to show you guys. 

www.ravinesgolfclub.com

They had pretty much open availability in August and that was the month I wanted. I have two cousins getting married next summer as well, on in May and the other in August, so I had to plan around them. Our hometown also had many festivals during the summer events, so we had to plan around those as well. We decided on August 6. It is 16 days before my cousins wedding, but everything should work out fine. Our date is also one day before Kevan's grandmothers birthday. This made her happy.

Introduction.

I am a twenty year old student seeking a bachelors degree in event planning. I have a passion for parties, celebrations, meetings but most of all, weddings. After an amazing day two months ago, my high school sweetheart became my fiance. I am now able to combine my two passions, weddings and the love of my life, Kevan. I will be sharing everything that happens from now till the "I do's" with you all. 

I guess I should start with the "Will you marry me?"

It happened on September 5, 2010.

It is a 1.01 carat princess cut diamond on a teeny tiny band. It is everything I wanted, even though I had no hand in the selection. He did good! He got it from a family friend who is a retired jeweler. He is the same man that made Kevan's moms and grandmothers engagement/wedding rings.

Kevan is very excited to get his own ring all picked out. He said he wants something simple, which makes sense to me. We are a simple kind of couple. We will have the same jeweler make his ring as well.

As of right now, I do not want a wedding band. People keep telling me that I should have one but I just don't want one! I may change my mind at some point, but I don't see that happening.






Here's a few random pictures of Kevan and I, to get to know us a little better.