Engage-aversary!

I was just sitting here watching t.v. when I realized that today is my engage-aversary.  Two years!  Can you believe that?  Gosh, it seems like I've been engaged for forever but this is the last engage-aversary that I'll be celebrating.  Next year at this time I will be  married for 2 months!

I remember my outfit, hairstyle, and shoes.  I remember the chilliness in the air as we watched the water.  And funniest of all, I remember dropping down to my knees with Mr. Golden as he asked me to be his wife because they were just too weak to hold me up.

Oh, and let me not forget making an account on The Knot and seeing my wedding countdown in the 900's.  I sit here and smile as I think about how it seemed like it all happened yesterday.  Now in just ten months I'll be walking down the aisle, and even better- in 7 months we should be moving into our new home (fingers crossed on the details and a whole other blog post to talk about!)

Save the Dates: Check!

I've been swamped with save the dates since last weekend.  I was upset with myself because I had intended to send these out at the one year mark, but what the heck!  10 months - 1 year, it's all the same!

I still have a second wave of people to send them out to, but none of them read this blog, so it's okay to show them off today!

I knew early on that I wanted something a little different for save the dates, but I just didn't know what.  Originally I wanted to do a clear photo cube with pictures on 4 sides, the words "save the date" on one side, and then the information on the remaining side.  I saw early on that although a wonderful idea, it would have been way too expensive to print all the pictures and purchase the cubes.  Not to mention, I can only imagine the looks I would have received at the post office when trying to mail them.

One day while at Michaels, I came across clear plastic 4x6 picture frames and a light bulb went off in my head.  I decided to do two pictures side by side on a post card, with the information pertaining to the save the date on the back.  The clear plastic frames made it so that people could see the pictures and the information easily.  Next, I said to myself, "damn, I'm going to need a lot of 40% coupons to get 85 of these things.

I almost gave up on the idea until one day while walking to the store, I came across a picture frame sale in the middle of the street that a warehouse was giving.  Un-freaking-believable is what I felt when I saw that they had clear plastic frames at a fraction of the cost Michaels was selling them for.  I never ran to the bank so fast to draw money!

I took my idea to a print shop and they designed and printed the save the dates for me.  Here's the final result:

click on photos to enlarge

They were still a hassle to mail but the trouble was worth it.  I'm just glad they're DONE!

Engagement Pictures Pt. II

If you'll remember, it took me what seemed forever to find outfits for the engagement pictures.  I kept thinking that I would have to see these pictures forever, so I didn't want anything too trendy and have to worry about hating the way I looked later on.  Mr. Golden and I met at the Gap, so for the first part of the shoot, I wanted something very clean, casual and Gap-ish.  That's why we stayed in the neutral colors.

For the second part of the photo shoot, I wore a long black dress to spice things up a bit and bring in some contrast.  Originally we wanted to do a sunset photo shoot, but our schedules wouldn't allow it.  Hindsight is 20/20 so of course now I have all these crazy ideas of other things we could have done- however, all in all, we had fun and it was a new experience for both of us.  Going through it together has put the flame under our tushies to really go above and beyond when it comes to the trash the dress photo shoot.  

All photos are credit of Jasmine Photography.  Click on images to enlarge.









On another note, tomorrow it's off to the post office I go because the first batch of Save the Dates are ready to be mailed!  

Engagement Pictures!

Where are my manners?  It's been a long time and I've been super busy with...life!  It's not an excuse, but I guess I just lost my blogging mojo for a bit.  It may not be fully back quite yet but I just wanted to leave you with these photos.  

All photos are credit of Jasmine Photography.  Click on images to enlarge.

Shortly after this last picture was taken, we changed outfits and headed to another shooting location.  I'll share those in another post!

The Good News Is That There's No Bad News!

I wish I had some interesting stuff to share about the wedding, but quite honestly, there's just not that much going on right now! I know I have yet to share the engagement pictures and I promise those are coming soon. There's a lot of stuff happening in other aspects of my life, and I can't wait to reveal the exciting news about that {nope I'm not preggers! lol}. But I promise all will come in due time!

In all honesty, this is exactly how I envisioned this year going in terms of the wedding because I put the majority of the plans together last year. Even more importantly, having this down time in planning the wedding has allotted me so much more time to focus on all the other things going on around me.

There has been talk about the bridal shower theme and rehearsal dinner location- all which deserve posts of their own so bear with me as I try to bring the life back to this blog! Have a great weekend! :)

7/7 A day of Remembrance

Today is a bit of a sad day for me. It is the four year mark of my great grandmother's passing. I definitely think about her more and more as the wedding day steadily approaches. I would have loved for her to have seen Mr. Golden and I get married being that I am the first one out of all the great grandchildren to make that step. But it would be unfair for me to wish such a thing because if she were still here, I'm sure she'd be suffering and I'd like to think that she is in a much better place.

I thought it would be easier to write this post after four years, but it's not. The only way I find solace is knowing that she met and approved of Mr. Golden when she was still here. One of my all time favorite memories of her with Mr. Golden and I was at a family BBQ back in 2004:

I was irritating my mom {something I do frequently} and my mother jokingly said to Mr.Golden along the lines of, "Handle my light work, get her away from me." Him being 6'3 and me being 5'2, he turned around and picked me up over his shoulder. My great grandmother was sitting in the chair all along, and said in those old-lady voices, "Oooh chile, I sure hope he don't be beating on you."

Everybody starting cracking up. It was her funny, outlandish comments and witty personality that made everyone in her presence fall in love with her. She is truly missed, but will always be remembered and remain apart of us in our hearts and memories.

RIP great grandma: the only one who used to play Old Maid with me and allow me to win almost every time!

Graphic Designer: Check!

My search for a graphic designer to design and process my wedding invitations went ever so smooth. Not only are they halfway paid for, but the stationer is going to start on the custom design concept this week. The printing production won't start until the beginning of next year because 1) I don't have the room to store them, and 2) I don't want the paper to fade or experience any other horrific ordeals.

I decided on thermography style printing. I absolutely love the way the raised lettering and images feel and the glossy look to it. The image below shows an example of how thermography printing looks, but the picture doesn't really do it justice.

*This is not the design or company I'm working with.

source: One Wed

I didn't totally escape the diy process of invites, I will still have to assemble them and package them up {which is nothing is comparison to what I was going to do before}. I've also been toying with the thought of calligraphy, but as of now, pretty lables sound like a great plan.

In the meantime, I'm embarrased to admit that I have yet to start collecting people's addresses for the guest list. I don't know what I'm waiting for, but this something I need to start on ASAP.