Being a designer and a bride-to-be sure has its benefits. When J and I were first engaged, I was unbelievably excited about everything: all the little things I’d get to design – the escort cards, the invitations, the hair accessories, the centerpieces… but as 9 months has passed on since the engagement, I’ve become more overwhelmed than anything. And I haven’t made much of a progress.

Last week I finally started working on the stationery… I’m planning to send out Save The Dates to our out-of-town guests, and since we’re getting closer and closer to the big day, it should be done soon. So far, I have designed four different versions, all a little different from each other, each a little better than the previous, but still not good enough. Groan.

As a designer/printer duo, we have pretty much unlimited resources as to how we want to produce the cards (resources as in places to go, not money to spend). But I can’t make up my mind! I want diecuts. I want letterpress. I want metallic paper. I want recycled paper. I want post cards. I want envelopes. I want someone else to design them! Just kidding.

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On a funner note, MOH (the stylist) had a fitting with us last night for our engagement shoot! Thank you so much, we’re very excited for how everything will turn out. Can’t wait to share the pics!

Last weekend J and I dropped in on Chicago, US of A, and spent an afternoon at Navy Pier. Enjoy some of the moments I captured!

It was a long day!

Yippee! J and I have finally booked our engagement photo shoot and I’m super excited about it. Uh… so it’s become almost a full blown production. We’ve got Tara, our photographer who has apparently scouted a très cool locale, my FBIL and his partner to do the video shoot for it, and my BFF stroke MOH to do the styling! If all goes well, we’ll be shooting north of the city, in a secret location…

In the meantime, here are some great couple pics that I came across.

photo belongs to millieholloman.com

photo belongs to redleafstudios.com

photo belongs to Single Frame Cinema

photo belongs to leopatronephotography.com

photo belongs to maxwanger.com

I absolutely love engagement shoots! They are so adorable and creative… and you can have as much fun as you want. No need to worry about that white dress.

My MOH recently asked me about our colours, and for some reason I couldn’t commit to the Emerald, chartreuse, aquamarine + whites scheme. So, surprise surprise, I came up with one last inspiration board. Here it is. The final, final colour scheme for my big ol’ wedding:

shades of jadeite, bark and white

YESS! I love this board. The ballroom has a brown walls, so I thought this could be a great way to use the walls as a backdrop to our colours. MOH can now start looking for bridesmaid dresses (see girls in upper left corner – love, love, LOVE the look).

Hello all!!! Welcome to my new home!! It’s prim, it’s proper, and it’s all my own. Thank you very much to Silverpoint Media for hooking me up with the hosting… off I go!

Summer is almost ending (big bawl), and J and I need to get our e-session sorted before it gets too dark too fast. If you haven’t already met her (through my Twitter), here is our darling photographer – Miss Tara McMullen. J and I clicked right away with her during our initial encounter at Starbucks, and it didn’t take much time for us to realize she was the one. She will be with us on the big day, and also our engagement shoot that’s to happen soon.

We’ve yet to start scouting locations, but I already told Tara that we don’t want anything to do with the distillery, or any walls that have graffiti on it. We’ve already been there and done it. Does anyone have any suggestions on some great e-session locales?

August was a busy month for this Miss here, because I had 3 weddings to attend to! Today’s Real Wedding belongs to my good friend Evan, who I survived my four years of fashion university with. Her and her now-husband Danny started dating while we were in second year, and after a very long engagement, they finally tied the knot.

The Italia-inspired wedding took place at Brassaii, a trendy downtown restaurant on King West. The ceremony was outdoors in the courtyard in front of the restaurant, which led into the cocktail hour. The reception then moved inside to the main restaurant, where an intimate group of 140 enjoyed the most delicious wedding dinner I had ever had.

Signage directing guests to the location

Acoustic musician entertaining the cocktail hour

Bringing the greenery inside the industrial style restaurant

The scrumptious menu

Escort tags indicating our seats by Italian provinces

Our table card, in the decorative "stamp" found throughout the wedding

The wedding cake, with the adorable birdie cake topper by our friend Curtis

The cozy ambiance

If it were up to me, and if we could cut our guest list down to double digits, I would totally have our wedding at a restaurant. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was intimate and warm, and did I mention the food was so very delicious??