Hi, I'm lame.

Okay so who watched the Grey's Anatomy episode last week where Izzie and Alex tied the knot? I did.

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It's weird to me the things that get me excited about my wedding. I know some of you are like me, you get distracted by your growing "To-do list" and lose sight of what you're planning for. Sometimes, this wedding doesn't seem real to me. I really found the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with? Me? I feel pretentious using the word "fiance". 

And then I watch a TV show one Thursday evening and it sinks in. A FREAKIN' TV SHOW and I'm crying all by myself with Joy because in a little over 100 days I'm getting married. THAT is going to be me. I'm going to have a husband, he's going to have a wife, we're going to be a team and no matter what, we're going to have each other. YAY!

Am I the only one whose wedding doesn't (didn't) feel real to yet?

Flower Porn

A week or so ago Mr Frenchie, Mama Frenchie and I had our first appointment with our florist. I think I came over prepared, but I had heard so many horror stories from my former bride friends. Everyone told me to be as specific as possible to avoid getting some thing we I didn't like. Personally, I don't like orchids, green flowers and easter lillies.

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So I made sure there were no pictures of these flowers in the Inspiration I brought with me. I'm hoping this helps me avoid seeing these flowers make their way into the arrangements. Instead, I brought wth me pictures of bright, "fluffy" flowers and daisies. I knew not all of these would be available in August, but I wanted these pictures to convey the over all feel I was going for.

Row 1 - Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4
Row 2: Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4
Row 3: Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4
Row 4: Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 4
Row 5: Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4

Durning the appointment we decided that my bouquet would look to Row 1 - Pic 3 and Row 5 - Pic 4 and the Bridesmaids bouquets would look similar to Row 3 - Pic 3.
The centerpieces are a toss-up right now between Row 1- Pic 2 or something similar with different flowers... or both.

When you met with your florist, did you have a specific picture for inspiration? or did you bring an abundance like me?

Flutter? Maybe not so much.

Mr Frenchie, Mama Frenchie and I visited the winery on Saturday to meet with our potential florist (which I will tell you about soon). When we were there I thought it would be a good idea to make sure we were allowed to do a toss. Annie (the coordinator) wasn't sure if confetti would be alright with maintenance but we are definitely allowed to do a toss with flower petals.
So this fluttery goodness may not be in our future...

 

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but at least our dream of a toss is coming true. YAY! -- I'm just so excited!

Also, since we aren't having children in the wedding we have found a way Jason's cousin and my younger cousins to participate... if they're up for it. I'm going to make paper cones (a future DIY project) to hold the petals (hopefully fluttery confetti) and put them in a basket for easy hand out. Hopefully the ladies will be excited to hand these to our guests as they arrive to the ceremony.

Are you incorporating the children in your family in other ways?

Strike Up The Band

Finding our band (or DJ) was Mr Frenchie responsibility, so right after we decided to have the wedding at the Bernardo Winery, he went to task. The first email Mr Frenchie sent me was for an awesome "crooner", David Patrone.

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Mr Frenchie and I love Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble and Jamie Cullem (to name a few). (We always joke about whether we could afford to hire Michael Buble if we just got married in a tiny chapel in Vegas). Through David's website and MySpace page we were able to give him a listen and agreed we HAD to have him! Go ahead and pop over to their website, I'll wait... 

Our problem, however, was we weren't sure he'd fit in our budget.* I'm of the belief that it doesn't hurt to ask (in most cases), but after our first conversation with David's rep, Jeff, our answer was no. We had alotted about half of what they normally charge, a bummer, but we understood. David and his Quartet play all over San Diego and at swing competitions. 

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Turns out, it didn't hurt to ask because about 2 weeks later we had a message from Jeff saying they would drop their price. I immediately called them back to make sure we weren't dreaming. I could not believe our luck! They were including everything, the WHOLE DAY! David Patrone, the quartet and a DJ for after dinner dancing. Jeff emailed me a contract, Papa Frenchie looked it over and by the next Friday we had everything booked - Ceremony and cocktail music, David singing during dinner and Jeff DJ'ing after. 

*Since my parents have generously offered to pay for our wedding I don't think it is my place to discuss our budget because it involves my parent's finances and not mine. I will say that I believe our budget is average but flexible, however I am trying my best stay within it as much as possible.

Are you getting any deals because it didn't hurt to ask? Are you having a DJ or a band? or both?

STDIs

I'm sorry I can't bring myself to refer to these as STD (shiver), so if I must abbreviate them, I choose STDI for Save The Date Invitation.

Now that I know the majority of our guests have received our Save The Dates, I am really excited to share them with you. Originally we were going to order postcards from Vista Print with a picture of FH and I in front of the Bernardo Winery sign. This didn't end up happening for a few reasons...
1 - We took HORRIBLE pictures the day we went down there.

2 - MOB still wanted to put them in an envelope because she was affraid some criminal would get ahold of our information and rob our house while we were all in San Diego. At first I thought she was paranoid, but I guess back when my mom and dad got married and it was more common to have your wedding announced in the paper, her neighbor's house was robbed (stealing all the wedding presents) while they were all at the wedding. My grandparents actually had someone watch their house when my mother and father were married.

3 - Our Friendor (and groomsman), Joe, had a much better idea :)

Mr Frenchie and I asked Joe to do our invitations on New Year's Eve this year and Joe hit the ground running, talking about letterpress and all the idea he had; we are all REALLY excited. After bouncing around a the idea of using my new Gocco, we decided to have them printed when Mama Frenchie gave us a 1 week deadline the week before my finals (thanks Mom). I was freaking out about getting them done by Mama Frenchie's deadline and Joe just got it done. So with out furture ado...



and the other side (I have no idea which is the front anad which is the back)...



Joe is my BFF since 4th grade (and BM)'s hubbers. He is an awesome graffic designer, along with being a great friend, husband to my BFF and father to the CUTEST kid EVER. If anyone is interested in hiring his talents you can contact me or go to his website.



Do you have any friendors? Have they saved the day?

Frenchie's Five for Friday

When I started my personal blog I noticed a couple of lovely ladies (StefK & Mrs. Hummingbird) with this great idea for a wedding present. They wrote down reasons why they loved their fiance/husband and presented it to them on their wedding day. Roughly 28 weeks ago I started writing down 5 things I love about Mr Frenchie every Friday. I've decided to share a random 5 with you, every Friday, until our wedding and what better place then to start but with #s 1-5.

1 - You are my Peanut
2 - You don’t like video games
3 - New Thai food Thursdays
4 - You have cute dimples



5 - Even though you aren't a "pets guy", you like my dogs and BM F's dog (and your are even excited about getting our own dog now).

I'm not sure how I'm going to give this to Mr. Frenchie, but I'm thinking I'll copy Mrs Spring Roll and make a book.

What to do you love about your man?

and the Winner is...

Drum roll please... and the winner is...

#4 - SueBeeHB's Vintage Style

I was so excited that FH chose this couple because I LOVE the groom birdie and how much his suit resembles Mr Frenchie's suit.

I know I probably could have custom ordered a similar suit from any of those talented artists, but these two just spoke to us.
Sue is a very nice woman and wonderful to work with. These birds (acutally most of the birds) were too big for our preference, but Sue said it wouldn't be a problem to make them smaller. In fact her daughter is getting married soon and wants smaller birds as well.

And now for a confession... I actually bought another set! I know, I know, I have a problem!
The Small hand painted Love Birds w/ Nest by RedLightStudio (#7) were just to freakin' cute I couldn't pass them up. I think I'm going to put them on our Sweetheart Table.


Have you ordered anything for your wedding from Etsy?