Are you KIDDING me?!?
I logged into blogger to write a random wedding planning thought of the day, but happened to see on Mindy Weiss's blog - a post that grabbed my attention.
m&ms has a new line of Disney-inspired m&ms!!!! How serendipitous! I've been talking for months of the possibility of ordering customized m&ms to use for our favors. One possibility was to have m&ms in our wedding colors; another was to put our faces on the m&ms (hehe); and NOW, there are Disney m&ms?!? SHUT UP!!!
Here I am!!! ;-)
With Andrew being away for the past several weeks, with the exception of sending out contracts and deposits, I have not been anywhere near anything wedding related! ...Until tonight. In this past hour, I started perusing DIY wedding invitation sites. This will be the next task we tackle upon Andrew's return.
Two useful sites I've found so far:
http://www.formal-invitations.com/ ~ Only thing is that I'm leaning towards using a tri-fold invitation with a pocket. Unless I missed it, I don't think they carry it. Still, some very cute designs!
I just received this email from Traci and had to share. Andrew and I discovered the Snow White Wishing Well at Disneyland last December...so, in reading this ~ especially the tidbit at the end ~ I felt an immediate connection. Besides that, Andrew had considered proposing to me by the Wishing Well if we were able to get into Disneyland on New Year's Eve. :-)
Adriana Caselotti – Voice of Snow White
Adriana Caselotti's face may never ring a bell, but her voice is known wherever Walt Disney's Snow White is shown. We celebrate her 93rd Birthday this week. Born May 5, 1916 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Adriana was born into an operatic family. Her father Guido, an immigrant from Italy, taught music in New York City, her mother Maria (from Naples) sang at the Royal Opera, and a sister Louise was a noted opera singer and voice teacher. She was 18 when Walt Disney personally chose her from 150 girls auditioning for the voice of Snow White for his first full length animated feature “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937). He was looking for a fresh and natural voice, and asked her father if any of his students might be suitable, but on hearing Adriana's voice realized his search was over.
At the drop of a hat, Disney's first ingénue of the animated screen would burst into a chorus of the songs that made her famous - I'm Wishing, Some Day My Prince Will Come and Whistle While You Work. Reportedly, Adriana remembered every line, verse, and nuance of her most famous Hollywood role.
Over the years and many reissues of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," including the 50th Anniversary re-release in 1987, Adriana actively participated in publicity events and television specials celebrating the famous film. As she recalled, I'd never worked in show business before ("Snow White"). I feel very blessed. Not everyone gets the chance to be part of a genuine classic like - Snow White.
Adriana was honored by Disney Studios in 1994 when she received a Disney Legend Award and left her handprints in cement outside the Studio Theatre. She passed away January 19, 1997 at the age of 80. Infinitely proud of her contribution to Disney's legacy, she told a reporter in 1995, I know that my voice will never die.
Did You Know? In the early 1990s, when the Snow White Grotto at Disneyland was refurbished, Adriana re-recorded I'm Wishing for the Snow White Wishing Well at the age of 75.
Sources:
“Disney’s A – Z” – Dave Smith
wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriana_
legends.disney.go.com/legends
bridgeport.ct.schoolwebpages.
disney.go.com/vault/archives
These last few days have been a whirlwind of activity. With Andrew going out of the country tomorrow for the next 3 weeks, we have had quite a to-do list before he leaves!
Contracts are underway with both our photographer, Jill Thomas and our designer/florist, Brian Bosch. I figured with everything lining up, that things should start to slow down. Reading Mindy Weiss's book last night, I realized that it will NOT slow down!
Next on our list will be working on our invitations ~ especially since we'll be making them ourselves. What kind of paper? What colors? What card style ~ standard? tri-fold? What kind of font? How to word it? The choices are endless...and made me realize that we will have to start brainstorming on this as soon as Andrew gets back. The sooner the better! Waiting any longer on this task will only stress us out if we plan to get the invitations out by September.
Sooo...what to do while Andrew is away? I'm sure there will be plenty! But I'm rolling with whatever comes to mind. Today it was about chatting with Brian and figuring out my bouquet. Since I never dreamed of my wedding as a little girl, and I'm not a huge flower person, I didn't really have my heart set on any specific type of flowers or arrangement.
After our first meeting with Brian, I started to look around and see what bouquets appealed to me. Based on a picture of a bouquet that I liked, Brian originally suggested a white floral bouquet with splashes of blue hydrangeas. The more I thought about it, the more I really didn't want a white floral arrangement. It's pretty, but it doesn't POP. I then remembered a picture I saw in my bouquet search ~ a bouquet of red roses with splashes of white. Ooh, if I could only have that with a rich blue!
Then yesterday, one of my favorite blogs - Green Wedding Shoes - posted a blog on anemones. She had raved about anemones before...or I had read about anemones somewhere else, but this blog couldn't have come at a better time! I could be DOWN with blue anemones!
I forgot to mention! We ordered my Scott Kay wedding ring on Wednesday! It's a match to my engagement ring. When it arrives, can I just pretend that I'm married??? ;-)
Man, it's felt like a long week! And my computer cable (that Andrew gave to me) got FRIED...so, I've been "working" off of my iPhone the past few days.
Our photographer meetings were interesting...and good. In the end, we chose Jill Thomas. As I mentioned last time, Amoré just didn't seem to match our style as we had originally thought...and the connection with the photographer just wasn't there! While he seemed like a nice guy, he was a bit stand-off-ish and didn't really seem to even try to connect with us.
I emailed my contact, Candice, at Amoré to voice our concern. She replied apologizing for the lack of connection, and assumed that perhaps he was nervous since his boss (Candice) was right there. She went on to explain her reasons for matching the photographer with us. Those reasons being that he had the most experience shooting nighttime weddings -- especially coming from the east coast. Funny that we never knew he was from the east coast, because when he asked about us, we told him that we were from the east coast. That could've been a good way to connect with us, but he didn't take it.
In contrast, when we video chatted with Jill, we made that connection that we had both lived in the D.C. area! Okay, I was the one to butt in and say that I used to live in Arlington, but that's what meeting people is all about ~ making that connection. The conversation was open and honest, and she was very easy to talk to.
The only question we had for Jill was getting copies of the raw files, along with the jpgs. Once we chatted again yesterday, all was set straight, we were on the same page, so we hired her! We're even going one package above from what we planned, but it will be well worth the extra money! She's going to be a blast to work with!
Funny enough, while we were on the phone with Jill, Father Brian from Good Shepherd Catholic church called. We returned his call to let him know that we will schedule a meeting with him when Andrew returns from Europe. Till then, he has our wedding penciled in! From the brochure we received, with information on the church and Father Brian, and from talking to him, he seems very personable. I can't wait to meet him!
Friday was my first trip to Downtown L.A.! I joined my friend, Rita, who was shopping for her baby shower. It was a long day of checking out the many types of AMAZING fabrics, buying spools upon spools of ribbon (Cinderella blue for ME!), perusing several floral shops, and hitting pretty much *every single* bridal store that carried tiaras! I found my tiara at the very first store we visited. Murphy's Law, isn't it? Well, my tiara had an original price tag of $129, it had been priced down to $99, and they sold it to me for $80. Woohoo!!! And it's gorgeous!
My other great find was some Cinderella glass slippers! I thought they would be great as table decor, but I may use them for my place cards. Rita had a great idea as to how to set them up in a great little display involving shoeboxes, fabric or cardstock, ribbon and/or crystals ~ it'll be fun to put it together!
Lastly, I'm looking at makeup and hair services. I've had quite a few offers...the last being friends of a friend. I was asked to email them with my info ~ wedding size, etc. One week later, and I haven't heard back. So, I checked out a place that Disneyland Brides have been raving about: Something Blue Stylists. Their online portfolio and the photos I've seen from Disneyland Brides have been great! And the prices...wow! From the preview to the day of, it totals the cost of JUST getting my makeup done by other makeup artists!
Oh, and did I say that we officially decided on using Brian Bosche as our designer/florist? Check another off the list! :-)
The ducks are starting to line up, and it feels SO GOOD!!!
Last Thursday (as I was coming down from my NKOTB high), I called Good Shepherd Catholic Church looking for a priest to officiate our wedding. I was greeted by an answering machine, so I left my appropriate information. Gary called me the following day, but I was fast asleep at 9:40am. Unfortunately, I didn't listen to his message till after 1:30pm, which was right at the time he left the office. So, I had another conversation with the office answering machine.
This morning, Christine from Good Shepherd called me. Again, I was fast asleep at 9:25am. But she was still in the office when I called about 20 minutes ago. Yay! I received more information than I thought I would ~ from what I should expect in the packet they'll be sending us, to who the best priest is, and how their pre-marital counseling sessions work vs. individually filling out a questionnaire if we're unable to do the sessions.
The questionnaire goes through topics talked about in the sessions. From our answers, the priest sees areas where Andrew and I might need to discuss...or say "You two are PERFECT for each other!" It's not a pass/fail sort of thing; just a tool to help us prepare for marriage.
As for my other ducks falling in line...photographers! Andrew and I have a meeting with Amore Wedding Photography tomorrow. I'll be honest...they were our number one choice in the beginning, but after researching other photographers when they went MIA, we got an even better idea of what we're looking for. Suddenly, their photos just didn't compare. Even with their personal discounts for us, we could possibly go with someone else. It all depends on the portfolio we see tomorrow, and of course, how we get along with the photographer.
We also have a meeting with Jill Thomas tomorrow night via video chat. She seems like an easy, friendly person to work with, and her documentary-style photography is more in line with our vision.
It would be great to have at least one more photographer to interview to round out our choices, but we'll see how it goes tomorrow. If we're absolutely sold on one or the other, then that's it! Search OVER! If not, I'll be picking up the phone and calling one or two other photographers I recently contacted via email.
The ducks are starting to fall in line, and I am SO happy!
